GRAPHIC STUDO

Photoshop Brush Tutorial

2009-07-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to create an effect like this. Very simple and short. Some of you will recognize the tutorial. You’re right, it’s already at deviantArt, but I still get so much requests, so .. here it comes

Step 1

Start with a new file and choose any size you want (I took 560×226). Paint the layer black and create a new layer (!).

Step 2

Get some brushes from here and install them. Now set white as foregroundcolor, choose one (or more) of the brushes and add them by clicking on the image.

Step 3

Duplicate the layer, use gaussian blur (~5px) and set the oppacity of the layer to ~40%.

Step 4

Create a new layer and use the big 300px brush with 2 colors you want to paint over the picture.Take care: The 2 colors have to be in the same layer!

Step 5

Set the layer on color and create a new layer (and press D! - black and white as colors). Use render -> clouds and then the gaussian blur (about 10px). Set the layer on vivid light. Your result should look like this.

Optional Step

If the glow isn’t strong enough: Take the 100px pencilbrush, set white as color and set the oppacity of the pencilbrush to ~20%. Now you can add by simple clicking very nice highlights (same works with black as color).

Where to download photoshop brush and install them

2009-07-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

This photoshop tutorial video will tell you where to download photoshop brush and how to install them to your photoshop brush palette. Photoshop brush is a common use to create an effect in photoshop. There are many good website that provide free photoshop brush that you can use in your design. You can download the brush that will suite your design. This photoshop video tutorial will tell you where you can download free photoshop brush dan how to install them and use it in your design. This video byinsidegeek

website that provide free photoshop brush:
1. www.brusheezy.com/brushes
2. www.photoshopsupport.com/tools/brushes.html
3. tutorialblog.org/free-photoshop-brushes
4. www.easyelements.com/free-photoshop-brushes.html
5. www.brushking.eu/

Our Latest Totorial

Photography Tips From A Pro On Shooting In Low Light

2009-07-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

If you are shooting wide open, which is at the camera’s largest aperture, your depth of field will be correspondingly shallow. That means your focus is going to be even more critical than otherwise. Pick a point that needs to be sharp and really pay attention to keeping that point sharp. Generally, if you are shooting people, the most important thing to keep sharp is the eyes. When I am shooting people I focus on the eyes, shoot, re-focus and shoot again …and then do it all over again. I can’t tell you how much I hate to be editing and find that I have a potentially great shot, but out of focus eyes ruin the picture. I have found that if I am worried about an image not being sharp, I am usually right. Pixels are cheap…shoot enough to make sure you have your shot!

Shooting for stock, know your equipment, know your agency

If you are shooting with a stock agency in mind it is good to know just how high you can push your ISO before you reach the point where the agency is going to reject the image. That means you have to know both your own equipment and the standards of the agency. I was once shooting from the interior of a jeep on a mountain road in China. The scene, road-building equipment clearing a landslide, was lit by the headlights of the cars waiting for the road to be cleared. I shot the scene, hand held, but braced against the head-rest, at an ISO of 1600 with a Canon 1ds. Man did I work on that image in post (processing the digital files)! They accepted it too. With the newer cameras I have no qualms about shooting at 400, I am comfortable shooting at 800 and don’t think 1600 would really be such a stretch. But don’t take my word for it… do some testing!

Exposure and more

RAW (the file format native to the camera) has been talked to death, but keep in mind that it is more akin to negative film than transparency film and I personally find that I can safely get another stop to a stop-and-a-half in post-shoot processing. Shoot RAW, not jpeg! As far as exposure, keep your histogram as far to the right as possible without clipping (going off the edge). If you loose your highlights (which are on the right hand side of the histogram) you probably can’t get them back. I guess in that way a digital file is like transparency film.

I am not a big user of on-camera flash, but it can be a real life-saver. I suggest a good starting point is to set your flash to under expose by two-thirds of a stop. That can help bring out details without overpowering the image…and looking like you used on-camera flash! If you do use on-camera flash it is generally a good idea to bounce it or at least put some sort of diffuser over it.

Use movement to your advantage

Another thing to keep in mind is that a little movement in your image isn’t necessarily an image killer. Sometimes you can make it work to your advantage. A year ago I was shooting in the train station in Mumbai, India. The station is indoors and while it wasn’t exactly gloomy, it still qualifies as low light. I put the camera over my head as high as I could hold it and fired off a half-dozen frames at an eighth of a second. I only shot six frames because at that point a machine gun carrying police officer politely but firmly informed me that photography in the train station was forbidden. That image, in which everything has movement, even the lamp posts, has already sold a number of times as a stock picture with Getty Images (1377). Sometimes movement can make an image more dynamic and help it convey a mood or message.

Make Taped Photo Effect

2009-07-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

oday's I am going to show you how to add a simple taped down effect to your photos.

Step 1: Open up a photo on which you want to add this taped down effect. Place it to document which have you created in first step.

Step 2: So, we are going to rotate this picture a bit. Go to Edit> Free Transform (shortcut key of 'Free Transfort Ctrl+T').

Step 3: We will make a tape. First create a new layer. Then by using Rectangular Marquee Tool make a selection. Fill it with white and press Ctrl+D for deselect the selection. Now go to Layer> Layer Style> Stroke and apply the following setting:

Now change the Fill of the layer to '40%'. After this your tape looks like:

Step 3: By using Lasso Tool make a selection like a picture shown below and press Delete. This will add cut off effect to our tape.

Now go to Select> Deselect (Shortcut key Ctrl+D). Here's your result:

Repeat this process for the other side.

Step 4: Duplicate this layer by three times by press Ctrl+J and place each layer on different corner. Rotate them Edit> Free Transform (Ctrl+T) so that they fit into your photo.

Here's the final result!

How to install Brushes in Adobe Photoshop CS3

2009-07-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

If you've downloaded the .abr file and don't know what to do next, read this tutorial.

Put the .abr file you've downloaded into the folder/Users/{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes (on mac OS X) or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Brushes (on Windows) .
Then open your Adobe Photoshop, active brush tool, go to option palette and click on to open the brush preset picker.

Then click on little triangel in the right upper corner.

Next on the list you choose 'Load Brushes'

In the dialog box choose the .abr file you want to load and your new brushes appear in the Brush palette and are just ready to use.

2009-07-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

Step 5
Now we can really just use our imagination and simply duplicate this “lines” layer a few times, rotate and resize each duplicated layer until the outcome is desirable:
Here is my effect so far:

Merge the duplicate layer together.
We can also add a bit of glowing effect to the spectrum lines. To do this, simple duplicate the merged layer and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings: (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur)

Change the blending mode the duplicated layer to “Linear light” and you will have the following effect:

To add some final touches, remember we created a new brush preset in Step 1? We can use it to add some nice dots on the abstract line.

Create a new layer called “dots” on top of all other layers, grab that brush preset and simply paint over the lines:

Then Change the layer blending mode to “Overlay” and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this “dots” layer and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer back to “normal”, then reduce its opacity to 15% and erase some excessive parts.

You will have the following final effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! Of course you can further enhance this image by adding some more effect, textures and filters.

Here is my final version for this tutorial: (Added a bit of cloudy effect and sharpen the image )

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.
Cheers and have a nice day!

Create

2009-07-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

Then duplicate this layer 4 times and merge the duplicated layer together, you will have the following effect:

Rename this layer as “lines” after the merge.
Step 4
Again we duplicate the “lines” layers 3 times, and you will see the colour of the the spectrum become clearer:

Then we merge those duplicated layer together, then use the Free Transform tool to resize it into the following:

Then we can use the Warp Tool (Ctrl + T and right-click select “Warp”), transform it into the following shape:

And here is the effect after warping:

Create Simple, Yet Elegant Abstract Spectrum Lines in Photoshop Part 3

2009-07-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

Then choose the option “brush” and tick the “Simulate Pressure”:

And you will have the following effect:

Step 3
Still on this “lines” layer, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and apply the following settings:

Then hit Ctrl + F and apply the motion blur filter again, and you will have the following effect:

Apply the following Gradient Overlay blending option to this layer:

Create Simple, Yet Elegant Abstract Spectrum Lines in Photoshop Part 2

2009-07-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

Make sure you also select the Airbrush and Smoothing option.
After finishing making this brush, let’s save it as a new brush preset so that we can use it in the future too. To do this, left-click the down tri-angle on the top right and click “new brush preset”:

And Enter the following into the window popup:

Then you will see the brush preset appear in the brush selection window:

Step 2

Create a new layer call “lines”, grab the Pen Tool and draw the following working path:

Hint: hold down Shift key and drag your mouse upwards approximately 45 degree for both archor points.

Then right-click and select the option “Stroke Path”:

Create Simple, Yet Elegant Abstract Spectrum Lines in Photoshop part 1

2009-07-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial, I will show you the method I use to design a simple, yet elegant abstract spectrum lines in Photoshop. You will see how easy it is to achieve this nice effect and you can use it a wide range of occasions including perhaps site header backgrounds, logos, or add extra flavor to your photo manipulations.
This tutorial is suitable for beginners and I included the ways of creating new brush presets and also the use of Pen Tool. You will ample opportunities to practive layer blending, filters and Free Transform Tools. Have a try!
Here is a preview of the final effect: (click to enlarge)

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1
Create a new document with black background, for size I chose 980px * 400px however you can change this according to your own preference. Use 72 pixel/inch for resolution since we’re creating an image used for website.
Now let’s make a new brush preset. To do this, firstly select the brush tool with the following brush:

Then apply the following brush dynamics to it:
Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

SSpecial Effects - Special Effects last steps

2009-06-09T00:17:00.001-07:00

Step 9
Now we'll add a dramatic glow to the tiles. Before we begin, zoom in to 100% so that you can see the individual tiles. Open the Filter> Blur menu and select Gaussian Blur. In the Gaussian Blur filter tool, adjust the radius so that the tiles create a soft glow effect.
Step 10
We're done! But here's one more step in case you feel that the outline is too thin and you would like to thicken it. Open the Filter> Other menu and select Maximum. Adjust the radius slightly to increase the size of the outline. Click OK when done.
Final Results
Original Photo
Disco Tiles Photoshop Tutorial
window.google_render_ad();

Special Effects - Special Effects step 5 - 8

2009-06-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

Step 5
We're done creating the tile pattern, so we'll work on creating the outline now. Duplicate the layer by pressing Ctrl+J or opening the Layer menu and selecting Duplicate. Next, change the blending mode of the new layer to Screen.
Step 6
Apply a find edges filter by opening the Filter> Stylize menu and selecting Find Edges. This filter draws an outline of the edges.
Step 7
Press Ctrl+I or open the Image> Adjustments menu and select Invert. The outline should be blended into the photo.
Step 8
The tiles and outline effect is now complete. But the effect looks flat and boring. In the next steps, we'll enhance it using a new layer that will add depth and a glow effect to the tiles. First, press Shift+Ctrl+E or open the Layer menu and select Merge Visible. This will create a duplicate of the image as a single layer. Change the blending mode to Overlay. By adding a duplicate of the image with an Overlay blending mode, we can increase the contrast which will enhance the appearance of depth in the tiles.
window.google_render_ad();

Special Effects - Special Effects step 1 -4

2009-06-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

Page 1 of 3
Tired of old boring prints? Try out this fun photo effect on your photos that you can print out to impress your friends. From a distance, it will look like a normal photo but view the printed image up close and you'll see an abstract mosaic pattern that resembles a disco floor. This Photoshop effect is also great for enlarging low resolution photos into poster-size prints.
Preview of Final Results

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/images/stories/Photoshop%20Tutorials/Special%20Effects/Disco%

Disco Tiles Photoshop Tutorial
Step 1
Run Photoshop and open the photo you would like to add this effect to into Photoshop.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/images/stories/Photoshop%20Tutorials/Special%20Effects/Disco%20Tiles/open.jpg

Step 2
Next, we need to resize the image to the final output size that we would like to print at. Enter the width and height for the document size and specify the resolution. You can set the resampling method to Nearest Neighbor to speed up this process.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/images/stories/Photoshop%20Tutorials/Special%20Effects/Disco%20Tiles/resize.jpg

Step 3
Before we continue, zoom out so that you can see the whole image. Now open the Filter> Pixelate menu and select Mosaic. In the Mosaic filter tool, adjust the cell size to the largest possible that will retain important details. If you are working on a portrait, you can simply look at the eyes as you adjust the cell size.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/images/stories/Photoshop%20Tutorials/Special%20Effects/Disco%20Tiles/pixelate.jpg

Step 4
The image is pixelated, but it doesn't look very special. So before we continue, we'll curve the edges for a more contemporary effect. To do this, open the Filter> Noise menu and select Median. Adjust the radius of the filter until you get the rounded corners that you like.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/images/stories/Photoshop%20Tutorials/Special%20Effects/Disco%20Tiles/median.jpg

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 5

2009-06-09T00:06:00.003-07:00

select the image layer, rotate it then merge them.
Final Script:preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO
open(File(openDialog()));
var docRef_1 = activeDocument;
docRef_1.backgroundLayer.duplicate();
var white = new SolidColor();
white.rgb["hexValue"] = "ffffff"
var black = new SolidColor();
black.rgb["hexValue"] = "000000"
foregroundColor = black;
backgroundColor = white;
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(white);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
docRef_1.layers[0].duplicate();
docRef_1.activeLayer = docRef_1.layers[0];
docRef_1.activeLayer.applyAverage();
for (RLevel = 0; RLevel <= 255; RLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Red"].histogram[RLevel]) {
break;
}
}
for (GLevel = 0; GLevel <= 255; GLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Green"].histogram[GLevel]) {
break;
}
}
for (BLevel = 0; BLevel <= 255; BLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Blue"].histogram[BLevel]) {
break;
}
}
var R = 0;
var G = 0;
var B = 0;
if (RLevel > GLevel && RLevel > BLevel) {
R = 255;
}
if (GLevel > BLevel && GLevel > RLevel) {
G = 255;
}
if (BLevel > RLevel && BLevel > GLevel) {
B = 255;
}
var color = new SolidColor();
color.rgb.red = R;
color.rgb.green = G;
color.rgb.blue = B;
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(color);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
docRef_1.activeLayer.invert();
docRef_1.activeLayer.blendMode = BlendMode.COLORBLEND;
docRef_1.activeLayer.opacity = 50;
docRef_1.activeLayer.merge();
var width = docRef_1.width;
var height = docRef_1.height;
if (width <= height) {
var borderSize = Math.round(width * 0.15);
}
else {
var borderSize = Math.round(height * 0.15);
}

docRef_1.resizeCanvas(width + borderSize, height + borderSize);
docRef_1.artLayers.add();
docRef_1.activeLayer.move(docRef_1.backgroundLayer, ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE);
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(white);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
docRef_1.layers[0].merge();
docRef_1.artLayers.add();
docRef_1.activeLayer.move(docRef_1.backgroundLayer, ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE);
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(black);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
var width = docRef_1.width;
var height = docRef_1.height;
var newSize = Math.round(Math.sqrt(width * width + height * height)) + borderSize;
docRef_1.resizeCanvas(newSize, newSize);
docRef_1.activeLayer.applyGaussianBlur(borderSize / 3);
docRef_1.activeLayer.opacity = 50;
var angle = Math.round(Math.random() * 40) - 20;
docRef_1.activeLayer.rotate(angle, AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER);
docRef_1.activeLayer = docRef_1.layers[0];
docRef_1.activeLayer.rotate(angle, AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER);
docRef_1.activeLayer.merge();

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 4

2009-06-09T00:06:00.002-07:00

Step 11:
Now we want to invert the color of this layer then change its blending mode to color and its opacity to 50%. The code for doing this is.docRef_1.activeLayer.invert();
docRef_1.activeLayer.blendMode = BlendMode.COLORBLEND;
docRef_1.activeLayer.opacity = 50;
docRef_1.activeLayer.merge();
Each command here explains itself fairly well, this process would be done in Photoshop by hitting Ctrl+I then changing the blending mode and opacity manually in the layers panel then hitting Ctrl+E.
Step 12:
Now we want to add the border, the way I did this was to have this script enlarge the canvas then create a new layer and do a select all and fill this layer white. Before we do this we need to have the script calculate the size of the border depending on the size of the image. After a bit of trial and error I found a good border thickness to be 7.5% of the smaller dimension; either the height or the width. To implement this we first need to find which is smaller the width or the height then to make the border size equal to 7.5% of this. Lastly we have to double this thickness then add it to the width and the height to get the new canvas size. To simplify this slightly I just took 15% rather than 7.5% then I didn't need to double it before I added it on. The code for this stage is:var width = docRef_1.width;
var height = docRef_1.height;
if (width <= height) {
var borderSize = Math.round(width * 0.15);
}
else {
var borderSize = Math.round(height * 0.15);
}
docRef_1.resizeCanvas(width + borderSize, height + borderSize);
Okay, the first two lines are easy; we are setting a variable for the width which is equal to the document width and a variable for the height which is equal to the document height.
Then we have an 'if' statement which says if the width is smaller or equal to the height then execute the command in the curly brackets. The first part of this command looks familiar; just creating a variable, the second part uses a Math function called round, what this does is to round whatever is in the brackets to the closest integer or whole number. We need this because some of the time 15% of the width will be a decimal number.
After this 'if' statement we have an 'else' statement which means if the width is larger than the height then it will execute the command contained within these curly brackets; which is similar to the other command.
The last line resizes the canvas to a width and height equal to borderSize added to the width and height. Note that the 1px border around these images is just added in because the background is also white.
Step 13:
Now if you tested the script you might think it looks fine however the background layer will resize to fit any size of canvas so we need to have the script create a new layer with the border in it then merge this layer and the image layer. The code for this is:docRef_1.artLayers.add();
docRef_1.activeLayer.move(docRef_1.backgroundLayer, ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE);
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(white);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
docRef_1.layers[0].merge();
The only part of this code that we haven't seen before is the move command which we are using on the active layer which will be the one we just created. The first part inside the brackets is the reference layer which we have defined as the background layer, the second part tells Photoshop to move the active layer to before the reference layer using ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE.
Step 14:
Now we are going to add what will become the shadow, at the moment this will just be a layer directly before the background layer filled with black. Here is the code:docRef_1.artLayers.add();
docRef_1.activeLayer.move(docRef_1.backgroundLayer, ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE);
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(black);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
This code is nearly exactly the same as the code in the last step except that this is filled black and we don’t merge it yet. If you test it shouldn't look any different from what it did in the last step.
Step 15:
Okay now we want the script to resize the canvas so it can fit the image at any angle; this requires good old bit of Pythagoras. The code for this is:var width = docRef_1.width;
var height = docRef_1.height;
var newSize = Math.round(Math.sqrt(width * width + height * height)) + borderSize;
docRef_1.resizeCanvas(newSize, newSize);
The first two lines create new variables for the width and height. The next line create a variable for the new size of the document, the Math.sqrt function in this takes the square root of the number in the brackets and we add the borderSize just to account for the shadow we will create. The last line is resizing the canvas.
Step 16:
Now to create the shadow, we want the script to add a gaussian blur to the black layer we created earlier. I found that the value for the gaussian blur should be a third of the borderSize and the opacity, 50%. Here's the code for this part:docRef_1.activeLayer.applyGaussianBlur(borderSize / 3);
docRef_1.activeLayer.opacity = 50;
The first line is in the same for as the average blur which we made in step 5.
window.google_render_ad();
<<> - Next >>
More tutorials by Ross Aitken
Design a Web Template using the “960 Grid System” (29 December 2008)
How to Create an Abstract Photo Manipulation (10 September 2008)
How to Create a Movie Quality DVD Cover (10 November 2008)
Decorating Text (09 June 2008)
Retro Text (16 July 2008)
Active Writers
Denny Tang is the founder of Photoshop Tutorials and specializes in photo editing with Adobe Photoshop.
Oliver Cereto is a graphic designer and photographer from Málaga, Spain. View more of Oliver's work at olivercereto.com.
Ross Aitken is currently studying design at Glasgow, UK. You can find more tutorials by Ross at PSD Learning.
Become a writer
if (!window.netshel_ord) { netshel_ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000;
}
if (!window.netshel_tile) { netshel_tile=1; }
document.write('');
netshel_tile++;
document.write("");document.getElementById("img1").src="http://beacon.scorecardresearch.com/scripts/beacon.dll?C1=8&C2=2102&C3=303&C4=504310&C5=&C6=&C7=" + escape(window.location.href) + "&C8=" + escape(document.title) + "&C9=" + escape(document.referrer) + "&C10=" + escape(screen.width+'x'+screen.height) + "&C15=&C16=&rn=" + Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999);

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 4

2009-06-09T00:06:00.001-07:00

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 4

2009-06-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 3

2009-06-09T00:04:00.000-07:00

Step 7:
This step is slightly more complicated, what we want to do is find the RGB values of the color we have in this layer. There is no really simple way of doing this in a script but the method I use is to have the script select first the red channel then get the histogram of that channel then go through the histogram from 0 to 255 until it finds a value that isn't zero then that value will be the R value, it then repeats that for the green and blue channels. It is easier to explain this by going through this process in Photoshop. If you don't still have the document open from when you tested it in the last step then run your script again. Okay go to the channels by going window>channels and select the red channel this should now hide all the other channels and the image will look grayscale. Next hit Ctrl+L to go to the levels adjustments, you will see a histogram with one vertical line in it, now drag one of the output levels sliders to roughly below the line and the number in the corresponding box is the R value. Getting the G and B value is done in the same way. The script to do this for the R value is shown below, from this you should be able to work out the code for the G and B value.for (RLevel = 0; RLevel <= 255; RLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Red"].histogram[RLevel]) {
break;
}
}
This block of code is a 'for' loop, what line 1 does is says to start RLevel at 0 and keep looping around while RLevel is still smaller or equal to 255 and also to increment RLevel by 1 each time it loops around. The part which says RLevel ++ means increment RLevel by 1.
The part inside this loop is an 'if' statement and it will execute the command inside the curly brackets only if the statement within the normal brackets is true. Lets look at the statement within the normal brackets, its telling Photoshop to get the red channel in document one then getting the histogram array. The histogram that we looked at didn't look like a row of boxes but in fact it is, for each each output value horizontally from zero to 255 is a corresponding vertical value. In the histogram we looked at there was only one output value which didn't correspond to a non-zero value so RLevel can be thought of as the output value. since we haven't included anything else in the brackets like an equals sign or a greater than sign then it will automatically only return true if the value returned from the histogram is non-zero and since there is only one non-zero value then this will be the R value. The command to execute if this is true is the break command, this will stop the loop so we won't go round again after we find the correct value. the two closing curly brackets are just to close the 'for' loop and the 'if' statement.
Step 8:
Below I have included the full code up to this point, including the G and B value checks:preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO
open(File(openDialog()));
var docRef_1 = activeDocument;
docRef_1.backgroundLayer.duplicate();
var white = new SolidColor();
white.rgb["hexValue"] = "ffffff"
var black = new SolidColor();
black.rgb["hexValue"] = "000000"
foregroundColor = black;
backgroundColor = white;
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(white);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
docRef_1.layers[0].duplicate();
docRef_1.activeLayer = docRef_1.layers[0];
docRef_1.activeLayer.applyAverage();
for (RLevel = 0; RLevel <= 255; RLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Red"].histogram[RLevel]) {
break;
}
}
for (GLevel = 0; GLevel <= 255; GLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Green"].histogram[GLevel]) {
break;
}
}
for (BLevel = 0; BLevel <= 255; BLevel ++) {
if (docRef_1.channels["Blue"].histogram[BLevel]) {
break;
}
}
Now we are going to check to se if these last bits of code actually work, to do this we will use an alert box and make it display the RGB values. Insert this code below the rest of your code:alert(RLevel + ", " + GLevel + ", " + BLevel)
The alert box should contain the RGB values check these by double clicking on the foreground color then using the eyedropper. If the colors match then delete this alert box code and move on, if they don't match or it's not working just copy and paste the full code above and try again.
Step 9:
From now on I won't go into much detail as most of the things coming up have been covered already. Now depending on the average color we want to edit it in different ways. The way we will edit it is fill this layer with a solid color change its blending mode to color. The color of this layer will depend on the average color; if the average color is mostly blue we will use the color yellow, mostly green we will use magenta and mostly red we will use cyan. I'm going to show a long way of doing this just to demonstrate some extra commands. In this step we will get the RGB values for this color. The code for this is: var R = 0;
var G = 0;
var B = 0;
if (RLevel > GLevel && RLevel > BLevel) {
R = 255;
}
if (GLevel > BLevel && GLevel > RLevel) {
G = 255;
}
if (BLevel > RLevel && BLevel > GLevel) {
B = 255;
}
Here we are first defining the variables R,G and B and setting them to 0 then we have three 'if' statements so for the first one it is basically saying if RLevel is bigger than GLevel and BLevel then set the R value to 255. The same goes for the G value and B value, if in the off chance any of the values are equal then all values will remain 0.
Step 10:
Now we will create a new color then fill the layer in with this color, using exactly the same commands that we used in step 4 and 5. The code for doing this is:var color = new SolidColor();
color.rgb.red = R;
color.rgb.green = G;
color.rgb.blue = B;
docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(color);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
The only difference is that we called the variable color, just because this could either be red, green or blue; in my case it was blue.
window.google_render_ad();

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 2

2009-06-09T00:03:00.002-07:00

Step 4:
Now I will show you how to define colors using hexadecimal codes, colors can be defined in other ways like by RGB values as we will see later. Here we will define a white color and a black color then set black as the foreground and white as the background. There is other ways of doing this but for the purpose of this tutorial I will show you this way. The code for this step is:var white = new SolidColor();
white.rgb["hexValue"] = "ffffff"
var black = new SolidColor();
black.rgb["hexValue"] = "000000"
foregroundColor = black;
backgroundColor = white;
You will notice here that the first two lines are roughly the same as the second and third; what we are doing here is setting up a variable which can be named anything but here we use the color it will contain as the variable name. We are then saying that this variable is equal to new SolidColor() which is a function for creating a new color. The next line is setting the hexadecimal value for this color to whatever the color should be so for white this is "ffffff", what we are ultimately saying here is that white is the color white and black is the color black.
The last two lines set the foreground color to black and the background color to white, and are fairly easy to look at and understand straight away. In Photoshop the equivalent action for doing this would just be to hit D to reset the colors.
Try now, setting the foreground color and background color to a random color manually then running the full script which should give you the same result as we got in step 3 but now the foreground and background colors will be set properly.
Step 5:
Now we are going to fill the background layer white using the white color we set up in the last step. For this we first need to make a selection around the whole document then fill that selection. The code for this is:docRef_1.selection.selectAll();
docRef_1.selection.fill(white);
docRef_1.selection.deselect();
The first line creates a selection using the selectAll() function, for any command that can be used on different documents we have to tell Photoshop which document we are working on even though we only have one open in this case.
The second line is telling Photoshop to fill this selection in with the white color. Sometimes it is confusing as it wouldn't be stupid to think that something like docRef_1.selction.fill = white would do what we are trying to do, but this isn't a real command and this is where ESTK comes in useful as it will point out the correct use of something like the fill command just by typing in fill.
The third line is fairly self explanatory, it will deselect the selection, exactly the same as hitting Ctrl+D in Photoshop.
Again test the script and you should end up with a white background layer and the image in the layer above. In Photoshop, all this could have been done using Ctrl+A then Shift+F5 to select all then fill the selection.
Step 6:
In the next two steps we will use a script to find the average color in the photograph; we will then use this information to decide how to edit the image. This part of the script could have lots of other uses for example you could use a similar script to create a color chart based on the colors that make up the image. In this step we will first duplicate the image layer then we will apply an average blur filter which will find the average color then fill the layer with that color. The code for doing this is:docRef_1.layers[0].duplicate();
docRef_1.activeLayer = docRef_1.layers[0];
docRef_1.activeLayer.applyAverage();
The first line looks familiar, we used the same command in step 3 but here we have replaced backgroundLayer with layers[0]. To understand this we need to know a bit about arrays in JavaScript. Arrays are simply just variables which hold more than one value, where variables are like boxes with a single piece of information, arrays are like a big boxes with lots of smaller boxes labelled zero to infinity inside. For example if you wanted to create an array holding the first three days of the week you would type:var days = ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday"]
Now if you wanted to use the first day of the week you would use the code:days[0]
This would equal "Monday"
Obviously don't include these last two lines in your script. Now that you know a bit about arrays we can go back to the three lines of code we added. In the first line layers is an array which includes all the layers in our document. The top layer in the stack is always the first in the array, corresponding to layers[0] because arrays start at 0 instead of 1.
The second line sets the active layer to the top layer this is the same as selecting a layer in the layer panel in Photoshop. We didn't need to change the active layer but it makes things easier later on.
The last line applies the average blur, the format here is the same as most of the commands we have used so far and is what's called a method and usually takes the form of document.layer.function where the layer is the active layer and the function is applying the average blur. This can be done in Photoshop by going filter>blur>average.

Manipulate an Image with Scripting 2

2009-06-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Manipulate an Image with Scripting

2009-06-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

Scripting in Photoshop is something rarely touched upon in regular Photoshop tutorials, but is something definitely worth learning. Scripts are a much more powerful way to automate tasks than actions and can be used to do things which normally aren't possible in Photoshop. Here we create a script which will edit any image, giving a stylish way to show your photographs.
Introduction:
In this tutorial I will aim to show how to create this effect using scripts but will also show the corresponding steps in Photoshop, making it easy for you to understand how to alter your script to achieve different results.
Photoshop allows scripts in three different programming languages; VBScript, AppleScript and JavaScript, however JavaScript is the only cross platform script available so we will use it, it is also more useful to learn JavaScript. If you haven't ever programmed in JavaScript, you should still be able to understand this tutorial as I have explained all of the concepts in enough detail. When writing JavaScript you are free to use whatever text editor which suits you, however newer versions of Photoshop come with a program called ExtendScript Toolkit (ESTK) which makes scripting a lot easier. This is usually found hidden away in the same folder that contains Photoshop. If you don’t already have this program then you can download it here although it may not work for older versions of Photoshop. There are a few advantages of using this program, mainly the debugger and the fact that you can run scripts straight from the program.
For most of the steps I will show what your image should look like after you have run the script. Throughout this tutorial I used this image from stock.xchng, optionally you can save a small size version of this image for the purpose of testing your scripts as the script will run faster this way. The script works for any image of any size.
Step 1
Open the editor you want to use, either ESTK or a regular text editor like notepad for Windows, don’t use a program like Microsoft Word for this. If your using ESTK then there should be a dropdown menu at the top left of the window, select Adobe Photoshop from this and this will link the program to Photoshop.
Now we will right a simple script to test we have the settings correct. Type the code shown below into your editor:alert("Hello World")
What this simple command will do is to bring up an alert box saying ‘Hello World’; we will use alert boxes throughout this tutorial in order to test parts of our script. By putting the quote marks in we are indicating that this is a string which is just a word.
Now run your script, If you are using a regular text editor like notepad then the easiest way to run your script is to save the file as ‘myscript.jsx’ then open Photoshop and go file>scripts>browse then select your script. If you are using ESTK then just hit the play button in the top right of the document window. Automatically you should see your alert box pop up. Before testing your scripts close any document that is open in Photoshop.
Step 2
Delete the alert code you had in the editor as we were only using it to test the settings. There are two settings we want to apply every time we run our script, these are to tell Photoshop to use pixels as the default unit and not to display dialog boxes unless we tell it to. If we wanted to do this within Photoshop we would go edit>preferences>units & rulers and change the rulers value to pixels, obviously turning off dialog boxes is limited to the scripting only. The code for doing this is:preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO
The first command is, simply telling Photoshop to access the rulerUnits within the preferences then change the units to pixels. You will notice that this is arranged in a hierarchical structure for example the rulerUnits is contained within the preferences, this is easy to visualise as Photoshop is arranged in exactly the same way.
The second command is basically telling Photoshop to change the value of displayDialogs to NO, if you wanted to have dialogs displayed while running the script then you would change the NO to YES.
Step 3:
Now we want to let the user select a file to open, for this we need to bring up an open dialog box, even though we turned dialogs off if we tell Photoshop to bring up a dialog it will do it. We then want to define a variable that references to this document then we want to duplicate the background layer. The code for doing this is:open(File(openDialog()));
var docRef_1 = activeDocument
docRef_1.backgroundLayer.duplicate();
The first command is made up of three parts, the open() command which will open the file within the brackets, next the File() command which fetches the file path within the brackets but instead of adding a path we added the openDialog() command. So this is displaying a dialog box where the user selects a file then it will get the file path and open that file, if you were wanting to open the same file each time you could swap the openDialog() with the file path and name .
In the next command what we are doing is setting up a variable using var then the variable name which can be anything but here I used docRef_1, if I was to open another document I would make a variable named docRef_2. We are then setting docRef_1 to be equal to the active document.
In the last command what we are doing is telling Photoshop to duplicate the background layer in docRef_1 which is the only document we have open anyway. You will notice again that this is similar to what you would do in Photoshop, as in you would select the document which contains the layer you want to duplicate then you would select the layer you want to duplicate then you would duplicate it.
Try running the full script now and you will end up with a background layer containing the image you chose and also a layer above that containing the same image.
To do this step in Photoshop you would simply go Ctrl+O then choose your file then right click on the background layer and select duplicate layer.
window.google_render_ad();

2009-06-04T09:23:00.001-07:00

3D Textured Text Effect the end

2009-06-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

Step 14

To add a bit of finishing touch, I added Outer Glow to the Vector Smart Object layer, as shown.

And, that’s how my Layers palette in end & final image looks like.

Here, is a another example of image, I made with the same technique.

To take it further, play & experiment with various textures, the blending modes, also changing the various Adjustments options like Invert, Posterize, Hue/Saturations settings etc. gives the different results. You can also make the text look grungy or rusty using grunge textures, its just the matter of exploring the powers of Photoshop & tapping your creativity!

2009-06-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

Step 14

To add a bit of finishing touch, I added Outer Glow to the Vector Smart Object layer, as shown.

And, that’s how my Layers palette in end & final image looks like.

Here, is a another example of image, I made with the same technique.

3D Textured Text Effect 8-13

2009-06-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Step 8

Pressing down Shift key select all the layers in the Layer Palette except the background layer & Link all of them. Also make sure to link the Layer Mask thumbnails with their corresponding layer thumbnails by clicking once between them.

Step 9

Now, we will do the reflection of our letter “C”. For that, select all the linked layers & duplicate them.

Step10

Merge all the duplicated layers & name it Reflection.

Step 11

On the Reflection layer, go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical & place it beneath the letter “C”. Adjust its perspective if the need be.

Step 12

The next step is to add a layer mask to the duplicate layer. To do this simply click on the add layer mask button in the layers palette.

Now pick the Gradient Tool (G) and draw a gradient (black to white) in the direction from bottom to mid top.

Finally just reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer and you are all done. I reduced the opacity to 20% , there is no golden rule about the opacity % , just play with the opacity setting & choose the one that suits your image.

Step 13

Finally, with the Type Tool, I wrote the words “for creativity” with the settings as shown in the Character Palette.

The font used is Larissa & can be downloaded from here. I also rotated the words a bit via Edit>Transform.

Then I applied the layer style, as shown in the screenshots below.

3D Textured Text Effect 4-7

2009-06-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

Step 4

Now, lets begin with the Photoshop magic, we will be adding various texture on the different layers & will spice them up with the variety of blending modes, the key is to experiment & choose the settings that will best suit your purpose.

Open the texture image that you would like to use, for the first layer I used a texture, lets call it Texture 1 from a texture pack on deviantArt. Go to Select>All & then Edit>Copy to copy the entire texture image, Now we are going to paste this image into our letter, but you have to tell Photoshop where to paste it. So return to your 3D text document & pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail, this will select the entire text/letter, in our case, the letter “C”, now go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture image on “C”. Change the blending mode of the texture layer to Overlay.

Now, your image & layer palette should look like so:

Look at your layers palette now. You see your texture image there and a mask has been made that allows only the letter part of the image to show.

If you’re using different images, play around a bit with blending modes, mostly Overlay, Soft Light, Hard light, Multiply will give the desired results.

Step 5

Repeat the procedure prescribed in Step 4, but with a different texture. I used one of the texture from this pack.

In brief, open the texture image, Select All (Ctrl/Cmd+A), Copy it (Ctrl/Cmd+C) & return to your original document, pressing down Ctrl/Cmd Click on Vector Smart Object thumbnail to select the letter/text & go to Edit>Paste Into (Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+V) to paste the texture in the letter “C”. And, change the blending mode to Multiply.

Step 6

Now, its again time to do the same thing as mentioned in Step 4 & 5, but with the different texture image. This time I used a more colorful texture from a another texture pack over at deviantArt. And, this time I choose the blending mode to Soft Light.

This is how my image & Layer Palette looks like after step 6.

Power Tip: If you need to edit the filler texture image or if you don't like how it looks within the letter, you can still change it! Just choose the Move Tool (V) & drag over with your texture layer selected. Also, if you need to resize the texture image select Edit>Transform to resize it.

Step 7

Now, select the Background layer & fill with a Gradient Tool (G). I used Linear Gradient & the colors for the two stops are as prescribed in the screenshot. Drag the gradient tool diagonally from bottom to top.

3D Textured Text Effect 1-3

2009-06-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Preview of Final Results

3D Textured Text Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open up Illustrator, and with the Type Tool type a letter or text, I typed the letter “C” I used the font Adobe Caslon Pro, you can use any font that you like, just make sure that it is a bit thick font to yield better results. I set the font size to 400 pt & scaled it horizontally & vertically to 150% through the Character Palette, though don't worry about the font size too much because we'll be pasting it as Smart Objects in Photoshop so we can adjust the size at any given time. The color I used for the letter is #8CC63F.

Step 2

Now go to Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, make sure that Preview is on. Use the settings shown below, apart from specifying rotations for x, y & z axis, I chose Tall-Round from the Bevel drop down list. The settings will more or less depend on the font, so if you have used a different font play a bit, though I will advise to stay away from the fancier Bevel settings, mostly None setting works best. You can also make it more thick by increasing the Extrude Depth.

Step 3

After you’re happy with your 3D effect, it will be time to move on over to Photoshop. Open a new document in Photoshop. Now, copy your 3D text/letter from Illustrator & paste it as Smart Object in Photoshop, press Enter key or checkmark to commit. You can now resize your text to whatever size you want, in fact, bigger the better, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I will stick to a small canvas.

Power Tip: If for any reason, you want to edit the pasted 3D Smart Object, just double click on the Vector Smart Object thumbnail in the Layer Palette, press OK on the resulting window, the Smart Object will automatically open up in Illustrator, do the changes or editing you want, then go to File>Save & close the file & tadaa the changes will reflect in your Photoshop file.

Double and Triple Strokes in Photoshop the end

2009-06-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

Step 9

Set the size to something larger, such as 6 pixels, and change the color to something that looks good with the other two colors. You could use Adobe Illustrator's Color Guide palette or just wing it by sight or use a color wheel. Click OK.

Step 10

It should look something like this.

Step 11

Repeat the steps of duplicating a layer and changing the size and color of the stroke to add a third, fourth, or fifth stroke. Remember to edit the lower layer when wanting to make the stroke larger to show past the layer on top of it. Click-and-drag a layer below another if they get arrange in the wrong order. In this example, I gradually went from a royal blue to a different hue blue, creating a retro gradient.

Step 12

Of course, each stroke doesn't have to have a color, just one to hide the color behind it. Try setting the first stroke to white, and then setting the second stroke to the same color as the text by hovering over the text when selecting the color (it will convert to an Eyedropper tool).

Double and Triple Strokes in Photoshop step 5- 8

2009-06-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Step 5

The Position should be set to Outside and set the size to 3. Change the color to one that looks good with the original text color.

Step 6

It should look something like this, depending on the colors you selected.

Step 7

Now if we went to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke again, we'd just bring up the options to edit the original stroke. Instead, click-and-drag the text layer to the New Layer icon the Layers palette (or press Command-J (PC: Control-J)). This duplicates the text layer.

Step 8

Now we need to edit the stroke on the lower, original text layer to make it larger. Double-click on the Stroke effect listed on the bottom text layer.

Double and Triple Strokes in Photoshop step 1- 4

2009-06-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

Preview of Final Results

Double and Triple Strokes Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open Photoshop and go to File>New for a new file at this size and click OK.

Step 2

Click the Text tool in the toolbar and click anywhere and type in some text. Don't click-and-drag a text box, but instead just click once and then type so we can click-and-drag a corner to resize it later. I set the color of mine to #4891dc by highlighting the text and then clicking the color on the Options palette.

Step 3

Change the font to something that will look good with strokes, such as an san serif font (arial or verdana instead of times new roman). I set it to Maiandra GD. Then click the Move tool and click-and-drag a corner to make it a little bit bigger. Remember to hold Shift to maintain proportion. After resizing, press Return (PC: Enter) to apply resize.

Step 4

Go to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke.

Publish Post

Metal Texture

2009-06-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

Use Photoshop to create a realistic metal texture. The texture can also be used for 3D modeling.

Step 1

Create a new Photoshop document (File> New or Ctrl+N). For this tutorial, we've created a 800x600 pixels document.

Step 2

Set the background color to 50% grey. You can edit the background color by clicking on the background color in the toolbox.

Step 3

Now we'll add some noise to the image. To do this, use the Add Noise tool (Filter> Noise> Add Noise). Select Uniform and checkmark Monochromatic. The Amount you specify will determine how visible the metal grain will be.

Step 4

Use the Motion Blur tool (Filter> Blur> Motion Blur) to blur the grain.

Step 5

Now we need to enlarge the layer to hide the edge effect caused by the Motion Blur filter. To do this, use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to create a selection of most of the brushed metal area.

Step 6

Use the Transform tool (Edit> Transform> Scale or Ctrl+T) to scale the selection to the document's size.

Step 7

The metal texture is complete, but it doesn't look realistic because of a lack of lighting. If you are using this tutorial to create a texture for a 3D modeling software, you can now import this texture to your software and let your 3D modeling software handle the lighting effects. If you want to add lighting with Photoshop, continue to the next step.

Step 8

To add a lighting effect to this texture, simply use the Lighting Effects filter (Filter> Render> Lighting Effects).

Final Results

Using Photomerge for Stunning Panoramic Photos (and some tips for shooting panoramics)

2009-05-29T03:31:00.000-07:00

Step 1:

Now let’s get started. For this example, I didn’t use my SLR camera, because I didn’t feel like lugging up the bigger Canon Rebel while snowboarding, especially since it’s more expensive than the one I brought, a Canon Powershot. I can put the Powershot in my pocket while snowboarding, so it was more convenient. But using an SLR is ideal for the reasons listed above. Go ahead and start up Photoshop CS3. Here’s there six images that we’ll be using from the support files.

Step 2:

Go to File>Automate>Photomerge.

Step 3:

A dialog will open that lists a few different options. “Auto” tells Photoshop to choose the best setting and apply it. It has less flexibility, but is quick and to the point. “Perspective” sets the image in a perspective that includes less barrel distortion, while “Cylindrical” has more barrel distortion. “Reposition Only” simply does that—repositions the images but doesn’t change the perspective. “Interactive Layout” allows a few more options, so let’s choose that.

Step 4:

Click Browse and select the images from the support files by clicking-and-dragging over them in the dialog. Click OK and the images will now be listed in the dialog. If we had already had the files open, they would already be listed there. Click OK to merge the photos.

Step 5:

The Reposition Only option shows how the photos would look like if they were just copied and pasted next to each other.

Step 6:

Clicking the Perspective option on the right adds perspective to the photo, rather than a “flat” look.

Step 7:

The tools on the left side let you select and move the photos (the selection tool), move the view around (the move view tool), and the rotate and zoom tools let you rotate and zoom into the photos. The other one is the set vanishing point tool, which can be used when perspective is selected. Click somewhere to set the vanishing point. This example shows moving the vanishing point to the side of the photo.

Step 8:

I pressed Ctrl-Z (Mac: Cmd-Z) to undo that tool. Select either perspective or reposition only and press OK to merge the photos.

Step 9:

Notice how each layer is a partially-masked photo.

Step 10:

Select the crop tool and crop out the empty pixels.

Using the photomerge tool is a great way to create breath-taking landscape photos. Here’s a few more examples (Click on images to enlarge).

Combining Two Photos for New Effect step 15-

2009-05-29T03:21:00.000-07:00

Step 15

Now let's add a text on a path to the photo. Command-click (PC: Control-click) the thumbnail preview of the Layer 1 on the Layers palette. This will create a circular selection around the pixels in the earth layer.

Step 16

Click the Paths palette tab and click the Make Work Path from Selection icon on the bottom of the Paths palette.

Step 17

With the Text tool, click on the left top side of the path we just made.

Step 18

Type in some text that matches the photo.

Step 19

With the Move tool, click-and-drag a corner of the text area and expand it so there's some room between the earth and the text. Now we have a combined photo with some text.

Combining Two Photos for New Effect Step 12 -

2009-05-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Step 12

The mask automatically masked out where we had a selection.

Step 13

Now for a few touch-ups. The levels seem off on the photo of the girl, so go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Drag the black arrow to 34 as shown here.

Step 14

Now the color levels are a bit richer and better adjusted.

Combining Two Photos for New Effect Step 5 - 11

2009-05-29T03:16:00.001-07:00

Step 5

With the Move tool, click-and-drag the earth photo selection onto the other photo.

Step 6

Click-and-drag a corner of the earth layer. If there's no transform controls on the corners, make sure Show Transform Controls is checked in the Control palette. Lower the opacity of the earth layer in the Layers palette to be able to make it the correct size.

Step 7

The earth needs to be a little bit bigger than the red ball here, since the ball isn't completely round.

{mospagebreak}

Step 8

Raise the opacity of the layer back to 100% in the Layers palette.

Step 9

Click and Eye icon next to Layer 1, the earth layer to turn its visibility off for now. Use the Quick Selection tool and select the area that overlaps the earth and where we'll need to bring in front of the earth.

Step 10

Click the Eye icon next to Layer 1 again to make it visible. Go to Select>Inverse.

Step 11

Now we need to mask out the area of the earth photo where the arm is. We mask out the area instead of erasing so that if we mess up, the pixels can be brought back instead of removing them. With Layer 1 selected, click the Add Layer Mask icon on the Layers palette.

Combining Two Photos for New Effect step 1 to 4

2009-05-29T03:10:00.000-07:00

Combining two photos to create a new look is a fun way to learn various techniques. We’ll learn how to use the Circular Marquee tool from the center, adjusting the opacity of a layer, creating a path from a selection and adding text along it in the process. Let’s get started.

Preview of Final Results

Combining Two Photos Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open the support file in Adobe Photoshop, an image from NASA in the public domain.

Step 2

Open an image of a person holding a circular object, such as a ball. This one is by Ronald Bloom and available through iStock at http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=277310.

Step 3

Now in the earth photo, click-and-drag a ruler guide from the top and bottom, halfway across so it’s in the middle. In the earth photo, subtract the entire length by 2 to get where the cursor needs to be exactly. Note: if rulers aren’t showing, press Command-R (PC: Control-R).

After drawing the ruler guides, hover the cursor over the center of the photo, where the two guides cross. Hold Option (PC: Alt) and click-and-drag the mouse. Hold Shift to maintain proportion. Once the Elliptical Marquee tool is around the earth, release the mouse button then the keys.

Step 4

It should look like this.

Automating Actions to Save Time

2009-05-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Want to save some time so you’re not doing repetitive things in Adobe Photoshop? Look no further than the Actions palette. Let’s say you to need to adjust settings, add a filter, resize, or any of the other many options in Photoshop to a large number of photos. Instead of having to go through each photo one at a time, applying effects, resizing, or adjusting levels for example, it’s much easier to edit one photo and record the actions. Then, we can apply that action to an entire folder of images.

Preview of Final Results

Automating Actions Photoshop Tutorials

Step 1

Go ahead and get a bunch of photos and place them into a folder. Open one of the photos in Photoshop. Select one which we’ll edit and record the changes for the action. Go to Window>Actions to open the Actions palette.

Step 2

Click the Create New Action icon on the bottom of the Actions palette.

Step 3

Name is “Black and White Thumbnail” and click Record. There are some other options, such as assigning a Function Key or changing the set of actions it’s placed, but leave those for this example as we don’t want to assign a function key and want to keep it in the default actions set.

Step 4

Everything we do next will be recorded as a step in the action. While there are many ways to convert an image to black and white, such as going to Image>Adjustments>Black and White, let’s do a simple desaturation for this example. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and drag the saturation to the left and click OK.

Step 5

Go to Image>Image Resize and change the Height to 200. As long as the Constrain Proportions is checked, the Width should resize automatically. Click OK.

Step 6

Now that it’s black and white and resized to a thumbnail, we need to add a border. Double-click the Background layer in the Layers palette and click OK to make it a normal layer that we can apply layer styles to. Go to Layer>Layer Style>Stroke. Change the Position to Inside, the Size to 2 and click OK.

Step 7

Now we need to save it with certain settings. Go to File>Save As and save it as a JPEG to a new folder named Thumbnails. Finally, click the Stop Playing/Recording icon on the bottom of the Actions palette. Now we have created an action that converted a color image to a black and white, resizes it to a thumbnail, adds a 2-point interior stroke, and then saves it as a JPEG. Close the file and don’t save changes so we don’t erase the original file.

Step 8

Now that we’ve created the action titled Black and White Thumbnail, go to File>Automate>Batch. Set the Action to Black and White Thumbnail. Click the Choose button near the source folder setting and find and select the folder of images to apply the action to. Click the Choose button near the Destination folder setting and find and select the folder to save the thumbnail images to. I set the source folder to one called Photos and I set the destination folder to one called Thumbnails. Also make sure to check Override Action “Save As” Commands since we already have a save command in the action.

Step 9

Now all seven photos from the source folder, originally full color and large size, have been saved as black and white thumbnails with a border in a separate folder. Remember, instead of editing photos one at time, when we want to edit many of them with the same effects, try actions instead.

Create Custom Photo Brushes 2

2009-05-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Step 11

Change the Hue Jitter to 12%, because we want to somewhat adjust the hue as the brush is clicked-and-dragged, but within a certain range. Setting it to 100% would cause it to include the entire color range.

Step 12

Now for the fun part: click-and-drag with the Brush tool in a curve.

Step 13

Whatever color is selected in the Foreground in the toolbar is the color of the brush. You can have a jitter between the foreground and background color as well as hue jitter from the foreground color.

Step 14

If you create a second curved brush path like this, click on New Layer on the Layers palette first, so that we can adjust the layer blending mode on the Layers palette. In this example, I adjusted the top layer blending mode to Multiply.

Step 15

Try various photos and converting them to brushes using the same steps here. Brushes with added Shape Dynamics and Scattering can help create a unique background, such as this one created with a photo of Polaroids.

Step 16

This one was created with a scan of tape. Besides creating unique paths, backgrounds are often created with such brushes.

Create Custom Photo Brushes 1

2009-05-29T02:56:00.000-07:00

Step 5

Name the brush something that matches the image, and click OK.

Step 6

Now that we have the brush defined, go to File>New and create a new file at 1024 x 768. Click OK.

Step 7

Click the Brush tool on the toolbar.

Step 8

Click the arrow on the Options palette which will bring down the brush styles and size options. Scroll down and click the brush we just created. You can change the size here, or change it by pressing the left and right brackets to make the size smaller or larger. Bring the size of the brush to something much smaller, such as 100.

Step 9

Go to Window>Brushes to bring up the Brushes palette. This palette has a lot of options for the Brush tool. Change the Shape Dynamics to these settings by clicking on Shape Dynamics then sliding the sliders. The brush can rotate to a certain degree as we brush. Try various settings as the preview shows how the brush will look.

Step 10

Change the Scattering to the settings shown here. Scattering does just that—scatter the brush as we brush. Try various settings as the preview shows how the brush will look.

Create Custom Photo Brushes Photoshop Tutorial

2009-05-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

Step 1

Open Photoshop and open a photo to use as a brush. It should be something that would work in a pattern, where the content of the photo is obvious as various sizes. I'm using this "blue angel wing" I found on iStockPhoto. IT should be relatively large, perhaps 1000 pixels for both width and height. If you create a brush at a small size, setting the brush to a larger size than originally created will cause it to lose resolution. But making it smaller is no problem, just like resizing a photo.

Optional: You can download this file to use at http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=130023 or use a similar one.

Step 2

To first define a brush, we need to select the area. Click the Rectangular Marquee tool on the toolbar.

Step 3

Click-and-drag a selection around the photo. We don't need to remove the white pixels first because they will be transparent in a brush.

Step 4

Go to Edit>Define Brush Preset.

Step 9 – Creating the Cloudy Sky

2009-05-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Creating the cloudy sky uses a similar process as the previous step.

Create a new layer for the sky and name the layer “sky”. Use the Gradient Tool to create a gradient like the image above (#1).
Create a new layer above the sky layer and name this “clouds”. Use the Brush tool and paint some lines to create the shape of the cloud.
Use the Smudge tool to smudge the cloud layer in the motion shown (#3).
Load the selection of the clouds layer (Select > Load Selection). Choose Select > Modify > Contract and contract the selection like you did when you were creating the smoke. The selection should be close to half of what it was. You may have to try this more than once to get the right value.
Create a new layer and mane this layer “clouds 2”. Position it above the clouds layer. Select a color that it slightly darker than the color you used to create the clouds. It should still have the same hue and saturation. Paint the selected area with this color.
Use the Dodge and Burn tools to add volume to the clouds so that they look 3D.
Duplicate the clouds layer then use the Free Transform tool (Edit > Free Transform) and enlarge the cloud. Set the opacity of this new layer to 75%.
Use the Dodge and Burn tools on the sky layer to create a light source.

Step 10 – Adding Light

Create a new layer and name this layer “light”. Move the layer to the very top so that it is above all the other layers.
Select the Brush tool. In the Brushes palette (Window > Brushes), checkmark the Other Dynamics option.
Set the brush hardness to 0% for soft edges.
Select white as the foreground color then paint the areas where you want the light to appear. The image above shows the areas that were painted.

Step 11 – Tinting With a Gradient

This step will show you how to create more realistic colors by warming the areas closest to the light source and cooling the areas away from it.

Create a new layer and position it above all the other layers.
Load the selection of the characters then use the Gradient tool to create a orange to blue gradient. Because the light source of the drawing used for this tutorial is from the left side, I will draw a gradient from the left to right. This will make the left side warmer and the right side cooler.
Change the blending mode of the current layer to Color.
Lower the opacity to about 10-20%.

Final Results

The image above was created by Adimas Soekidin. You can view more of his work at his deviantART gallery.

Step 7 – Coloring the Outline

2009-05-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Coloring the outline will add more detail to the final image and it’s easy to do.

Leave the brush presets on.
In the Layers palette, select the layer with the outline then lock the transparent pixels by clicking on the button.
Use the Brush tool to color the outline using a color that is close to the outline.
Keep using the Eye Dropper tool to select the color beside the outline.

Step 8 – Creating the Smokes

Now you’ll learn how the smoke swirling around the characters were created.

Create a new layer for the clouds. Use the Brush tool with a hardness of 100% and paint some zigzag shapes for the smoke.
Use the Smudge tool to smudge it in the motion shown above.
Use the Dodge and Burn tools to create volume on the smoke so that it looks 3D.
Load the selection (Select > Load Selection) of your smoke layer. Choose Select > Modify > Contract and enter an amount that will make the selection half its size. You may have to undo and try this several times to get the correct amount.
Create a new layer for the smoke highlights. Use the Brush tool and paint inside the smoke with yellow orange.
Select the Move tool and nudge the layer up by pressing the up arrow on your keyboard.

Step 3 – Base Color

2009-05-18T20:16:00.001-07:00

Now that we have the outline and white background separated, we can add the base color.

Add a new layer below the white layer.
Select the Magic Wand tool and, in the option bar, set the Tolerance to 50.
In the option bar, checkmark the Contiguous and Sample All Layers options.
With the Magic Wand tool selected, click where you want to add color.
Expand the selection by 3 pixels using the Expand command (Select > Modify > Expand). If you are using Windows, you can press Alt, S, M, E on your keyboard to quickly access this menu item.
Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the selection with a color of your choice. Use the same technique (Create a selection with the Magic Wand tool then fill with the Paint Bucket tool) for the entire image.

Step 4 – Adding Shadows

In this part, you’ll learn how to add shadows to the image. One important technique from this step is how to select the correct color.

Create a new layer and position it between the white layer and the base color layer.
Select the Magic Wand tool and set the tolerance to 1 (so that it will only pick one color) and uncheck the Contiguous and Sample All Layers options.
Select the Brush tool and set the hardness to 100%. This will give the brush a sharp edge.
In the Tools palette, click on the foreground color. This will bring up the Color Picker window. Select the base color from where you want to start. This will give us the hue of the color. Move the slightly off the area to change the saturation and brightness of the color.
Paint the shadows. Be sure to pay attention to where the light is coming from to get proper looking shadows.

Step 5 – Dodge and Burn

The Dodge and Burn tool will be used to give a gradient tone effect to the solid colors.

Duplicate the layers with the base color and shadow then position them above the original base color and shadow layers. The new layers will be used for dodging and burning while the old layers will be used to load selection with the Magic Wand tool. Select the layer with the base color and use the Magic Wand tool to create a selection of an area that you want to edit. In the image above, we created a selection of the hair.
When using the Dodge or Burn tool, turn on the “Other Dynamics” option in the Brushes palette (Window > Brushes).
Also, in the Dodge or Burn tool options, set the range option to Midtones.
When using the Dodge or Burn tool, set the hardness to 0%.
Select the top shadow layer (shade 2 in the screenshot). You will be using the Dodge and Burn tool to create a gradient in the shadows. Start with the Burn tool to darken the areas in a smooth motion on the lower part of the shadow.
On the same layer, select the Dodge tool and lighten the upper part of the shadow.
Select the duplicated layer with the base color. Use the Dodge tool to lighten the upper area of the base color.
Use the Burn tool to burn the lower area of the base color.

Step 6 – Adding Reflected Light

In this step, you’ll learn how to add light reflected from the ambient light.

Use the same setting as previously used for the Magic Wand tool.
Turn on the “Other Dynamics” setting in the Brush palette (Window > Brushes).
Set the Brush hardness to 0%.
For this image, a dark purple color was used to shade the area with no reflected light. The light source is from the left of the image so the right side of the characters were painted with dark purple.
A light yellow color was used to shade the areas facing the ambient light.

Step 3 – Base Color

2009-05-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Now that we have the outline and white background separated, we can add the base color.

Add a new layer below the white layer.
Select the Magic Wand tool and, in the option bar, set the Tolerance to 50.
In the option bar, checkmark the Contiguous and Sample All Layers options.
With the Magic Wand tool selected, click where you want to add color.
Expand the selection by 3 pixels using the Expand command (Select > Modify > Expand). If you are using Windows, you can press Alt, S, M, E on your keyboard to quickly access this menu item.
Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the selection with a color of your choice. Use the same technique (Create a selection with the Magic Wand tool then fill with the Paint Bucket tool) for the entire image.

Step 4 – Adding Shadows

In this part, you’ll learn how to add shadows to the image. One important technique from this step is how to select the correct color.

Create a new layer and position it between the white layer and the base color layer.
Select the Magic Wand tool and set the tolerance to 1 (so that it will only pick one color) and uncheck the Contiguous and Sample All Layers options.
Select the Brush tool and set the hardness to 100%. This will give the brush a sharp edge.
In the Tools palette, click on the foreground color. This will bring up the Color Picker window. Select the base color from where you want to start. This will give us the hue of the color. Move the slightly off the area to change the saturation and brightness of the color.
Paint the shadows. Be sure to pay attention to where the light is coming from to get proper looking shadows.

Step 5 – Dodge and Burn

The Dodge and Burn tool will be used to give a gradient tone effect to the solid colors.

Duplicate the layers with the base color and shadow then position them above the original base color and shadow layers. The new layers will be used for dodging and burning while the old layers will be used to load selection with the Magic Wand tool. Select the layer with the base color and use the Magic Wand tool to create a selection of an area that you want to edit. In the image above, we created a selection of the hair.
When using the Dodge or Burn tool, turn on the “Other Dynamics” option in the Brushes palette (Window > Brushes).
Also, in the Dodge or Burn tool options, set the range option to Midtones.
When using the Dodge or Burn tool, set the hardness to 0%.
Select the top shadow layer (shade 2 in the screenshot). You will be using the Dodge and Burn tool to create a gradient in the shadows. Start with the Burn tool to darken the areas in a smooth motion on the lower part of the shadow.
On the same layer, select the Dodge tool and lighten the upper part of the shadow.
Select the duplicated layer with the base color. Use the Dodge tool to lighten the upper area of the base color.
Use the Burn tool to burn the lower area of the base color.

Step 6 – Adding Reflected Light

In this step, you’ll learn how to add light reflected from the ambient light.

Use the same setting as previously used for the Magic Wand tool.
Turn on the “Other Dynamics” setting in the Brush palette (Window > Brushes).
Set the Brush hardness to 0%.
For this image, a dark purple color was used to shade the area with no reflected light. The light source is from the left of the image so the right side of the characters were painted with dark purple.
A light yellow color was used to shade the areas facing the ambient light.

How to Create an Anime Artwork in Photoshop

2009-05-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Step 1 – The Outline

Most people draw the outline on paper then use a scanner to load the outline into Photoshop. Begin by opening the outline image into Photoshop.

Use the Levels tool (Image > Adjustments > Levels) to correct the contrast of the outline. You can do this with the Levels tool by moving the black and white input sliders towards the center of the histogram. Make sure that the background is 100% white and the outline is 100% black with smooth edges.
To begin, you’ll need to unlock the Background layer. To do this, double-click on the Background layer in the Layers palette and click OK in the New Layer window.
Now that the layer is unlocked, you can change the blending mode to Multiply. This will make the white background in the layer transparent.

Tip: Ensure that there are no broken lines. You will be using the Magic Wand tool often and broken lines will slow you down.

Step 2 – Separating the Outline

In this step, you’ll learn how to separate the outline and the background into two layers. This will also make the outline slightly thinner. You’ll also learn how to dissect the outline without any jagged edges using the Load Selection from Layer command.

In the above image, you can see the difference between using the Magic Wand tool and the Load Selection from Layer command. The Magic Wand tool produces jagged edges that become apparent when placed on a colored background. Instead of using the Magic Wand tool, use the Load Selection from Layer command to produce smoother outlines that blend well with any background.

In the Channels palette (Window > Channels), click on the button. This will create a selection using the tonal information from the layer. Press the Delete button on your keyboard to delete the white background.
Add a new layer below the outline layer and fill the layer with white.
Change the blending mode of the layer to Multiply.

Final Results

2009-05-14T02:22:00.000-07:00

There are countless effects that can be created with this technique. Experiment with different combination to discover new exposure blur animations.

A simple camera flash effect was added to the end of the animation.

This effect was achieved by simply using the ALT and arrow keys.

This effect was achieved by alternating between the Rotate Right and Zoom In actions.

This effect was achieved by creating a right light streak and duplicating the layer about 20 times at the end.

Animating the Light Streaks: Animating with ImageReady

2009-05-14T02:21:00.000-07:00

Now that we have the frames created, we're ready to switch to ImageReady to start the animating process.

Step 15

Send the document to ImageReay (File> Edit in ImageReady or Shift+Ctrl+M).

You may also press the Photoshop to ImageReady button in the toolbox.

Step 16

Open the Animation pallet (Window> Animation). Click the flyout menu on the top right corner and select "Make Frames From Layers". Your animation pallet should now contain frames created from the layers.

Step 17

Save the image. To save the image as an animated GIF file, change the Format in the Optimize pallet (Window> Optimize) to GIF and adjust the settings. Because the animation I created will be used on the web, I used the following properties:
Format: GIF
Colors: 64
Dither Method: None
Use the "Save Optimize As" tool (File> Save Optimized As) to save the image.

Animating the Light Streaks: Creating the Frames

2009-05-14T02:20:00.001-07:00

To create the animation, we need to create the individual frames as layers.

Step 10

First, we need to determine the amount of frames we want in the animation. More frames will create a smoother and longer animation but will also take longer to complete and create a larger file size. For this tutorial, I will be creating an animation with around 10 frames. Because my animation will only have 10 frames, I can merge the 115 layers into 10 layers.

Step 11

With some simple math, we'll find out how many layers we need to convert to one. To do this, take the number of layers the light streaks was created with and divide it by the number of frames. For myself, this will be around 12 layers (115 layers ÷ 10 frames). Now select the top layer and press Ctrl+E to merge down with the answer to the mathematical equation as the number of times. For myself, I will press Ctrl+E twelve times to convert twelve layers into one. Select the layer below and do the same thing until all the layers have been merged

Step 12

Hide all the layers except for the bottom two layers.

Step 13

Select the second layer and press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to create a new layer from the visible image. Select/activate the layer above, click on the eye to make it visible, and press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E. Repeat this for the rest of the layers above.

Step 14

Delete all the old layers except for Background.

Creating the Light Streaks

2009-05-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

Now that we have the light sources identify, we can use it to create the light streaks. The streaks will be created by duplicating the layer and moving it one pixel at a time. This might send shivers down your spine; don't worry, it'll be easy and fun. Really!

Step 6

Before we start, we need determine the opacity of the light streaks. Light streaks with a lower opacity setting will be more transparent and is ideal if you'll be creating very long light streaks. If you'll be creating small light streaks, you can use a higher opacity. Instead of guessing, we'll give it a test. Change the opacity of the top layer to 15% and while holding the Alt key, press the right arrow key about 20 times until a streak of light is created. Using the reference below, adjust the opacity to what you think will work best with your image.

Step 7

Delete all the layers that were created so that you have 2 layers remaining. With Photoshop CS2, you can do this easily by selecting the layers the same way you select multiple files (Using the Ctrl or Shift key) and pressing the delete key.

Step 8

You've probably already figured out how to create the light streaks by now. But before I let you experiment, i need you to download a set of Photoshop actions that will let you zoom in/out and rotate left/right. Download and save the controls action to your computer then load it into Photoshop:

Loading the Action

Open the Actions pallet (Window> Actions).
Click on the flyout menu located on the top right of the Actions pallet and select "Load Actions".
Locate and select the action file then click Load.
The Controls action set should now be visible in your Actions pallet. There should be F keys assigned for each action. If you don't see any F keys assigned, it probably means that you have those keys reserved for other actions. To assign a different key to run the action, select the action, click on the flyout menu, select Action Options and change the Function Key.

The function key is shown beside the action name.

Step 9

Use the images below as a reference to controlling the light streaks.

Tip: This is a CPU & RAM intensive process so we recommend closing any unnecessary programs before proceeding.

Use these commands to control the direction of the light streaks.

Use these commands to control the zoom and rotation of the light streaks.

This is an animated sequence of the light streaks I created.

Finding the Light Sources

2009-05-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

In this section, we'll use the Levels tool to identify the light sources that will be used to create the light streaks.

Step 1

Open an image to edit. Use the Image Size tool to resize the image to the final output size you would like. This Photoshop effect will use a lot of your computers resource so we recommend starting off with a small image, around 300 pixels wide or tall.

Step 2

Duplicate the layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer or Ctrl+J).

Step 3

With the top layer selected, open the Levels tool (Image> Adjustments> Levels or Ctrl+L) and move the middle input slider all the way to the very right. Click OK when done.

Step 4

The light streaks will be created from the light areas in this layer. Use the Brush tool (B) and paint over the areas that you do not want any streaks to be generated from. If there are any light sources that's clipped off by the edge of the image, erase those light sources. If they're not removed, the final result will show light streaks with clipped edges.

Step 5

Change the blending mode to Screen.

How to create and define Photoshop Brushes

2009-05-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

Two basic general features that characterize brushes set limits on what can be successfully turned into a brush. And what can be a brush is almost anything.

First is color. Photoshop uses gray scale info while defining brushes. You can make a brush out of a colorful image but converting your document to Grayscale will give you a better idea of what you are doing. Anything that is white becomes transparent (0% opacity), anything black becomes 100% opaque and any other color turns translucent (opacity somewhere between 0 and 100%).
Second limitation is size: there is a maximum brush size possible. From Photoshop 7.0 on it's 2500 px x 2500 px (and 999 px for earlier versions). The larger the brush is created the better, so we strongly encourage you to create large brushes (ideally about 2500 px x 2500 px). The reason is you can’t increase the diameter of your brush beyond its original size without blurring.

There are plenty of ways to create a brush. You may start from a scanned image, a vector graphics,
a raster graphics or a photo.

We will guide you through a process of creating a sample brush in Adobe Photoshop CS4 from
a scanned ink stroke.

Step 1

Create a black ink stroke on a white paper and scan it. The optimum scan settings will vary depending on your scanner quality. Here, we set the resolution to 200 dpi.

Step 2

Open your scan file in Photoshop and change the color mode to 8-bit Grayscale (Image > Mode).

Step 3

You need some time to clean the image. With your bare eye it may look ok but it’s important to always make sure that there are no artifacts. Great tools to do that are (alternatively) levels and threshold. Open the Image > Adjustments > Levels panel and drag the left slider in the Input Level panel right to the end

or open the Image > Adjustments > Threshold panel and drag the slider right to the end

It may happen that the background turns grey (after levels adjustment)

or totally black (after threshold). That means the white background is not truly white. Note, in this step always choose ‘Cancel’ - we only want to identify possible artifacts.

Step 4 (Fixing the background - if necessary)

We will use Levels.

Drag the right slider in the Input Levels panel slightly left. That turns the brightest pixels white. To check if the right slider is moved enough, drag the left slider right to meet the right one. If the background stays white, the right slider position is ok. Bring the left one back to its origin.

Step 5 (Further cleaning - if necessary)

Once the background is fixed repeat Step 3. Now you can easily see plenty of very tiny ink stains all around our stroke. Some of them may add some character to you brush, but we want to get rid of the majority of them.

There is a trick how to do that effectively and easily. Create a white background layer. Duplicate your stroke layer and turn its visibility off. Apply levels or threshold adjustment as you did before to the stroke copy layer but this time hit the OK button. Now, create a mask and start to paint over all unwanted stains with a black brush.

Once all of the stains are masked, drag the mask to the stroke layer, turn it on and delete the copy.

Step 6

Your stroke is now clean, you can adjust it a bit, again using Image > Adjustments > Levels (or Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, Curves, Threshold). Hit OK once you get an appearance you are satisfied with

Step 7

Now, with a stroke ready to be turned into a brush

go to Edit > Create Brush Preset. Choose a name for your brush and hit OK.

A new brush is created. You did not have to select your image since Photoshop recognizes all pixels that are not white and include them into a new brush area. However, if you select a portion of your image, only the selection will be turned into a brush.

Test your brush and enjoy!

What next? If you want to export your brushes (eg. send them to myPhotoshopBrushes.com) go to Edit > Preset Manager, choose Brushes as the Preset Type and select all your new brushes holding the Shift key. Pressing the Save Set button saves the whole pack as an .abr file.

If you decide to share your (own!) brushes with us, please send us a link to your site and/or a zipped .abr file as well as a terms of use info (required) and a 300 px x 300 px preview.

LOGO FOR SALE 2

2009-05-11T01:43:00.003-07:00

EACH LOGO 100$

LOGO FOR SALE 2

2009-05-11T01:43:00.001-07:00

LOGO FOR SALE 1

2009-05-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

RACH LOGO 100$

LOGO FOR SALE

2009-05-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

EACH LOGOS 100$

CorelDRAW application window

2009-05-10T11:32:00.002-07:00

When you launch CorelDRAW, the application window opens containing a drawing window. The rectangle in the center of the drawing window is the drawing page where you create your drawing. Although more than one drawing window can be opened, you can apply commands to the active drawing window only.

Part

Description

Menu bar

The area containing pull-down menu options

Property bar

A detachable bar with commands that relate to the active tool or object. For example, when the text tool is active, the text property bar displays commands that create and edit text.

Toolbar

A detachable bar that contains shortcuts to menu and other commands

Title bar

The area displaying the title of the currently open drawing

Rulers

Horizontal and vertical borders that are used to determine the size and position of objects in a drawing

Toolbox

A floating bar with tools for creating, filling, and modifying objects in the drawing

Drawing window

The area outside the drawing page bordered by the scroll bars and application controls

Drawing page

The rectangular area inside the drawing window. It is the printable area of your work area.

Color palette

A dockable bar that contains color swatches

Docker

A window containing available commands and settings relevant to a specific tool or task

Status bar

An area at the bottom of the application window that contains information about object properties such as type, size, color, fill, and resolution. The status bar also shows the current mouse position.

Document navigator

The area at the bottom left of the application window that contains controls for moving between pages and adding pages

Navigator

A button at the bottom-right corner that opens a smaller display to help you move around a drawing

CorelDRAW terminology and concepts

2009-05-10T11:32:00.001-07:00

CorelDRAW terminology and concepts
Before you get started with CorelDRAW, you should be familiar with the following terms.

Term

Description

object

An element in a drawing such as an image, shape, line, text, curve, symbol, or layer.

drawing

The work you create in CorelDRAW: for example, custom artwork, logos, posters, and newsletters

vector graphic

An image generated from mathematical descriptions that determine the position, length, and direction in which lines are drawn.

bitmap

An image composed of grids of pixels or dots

docker

A window containing available commands and settings relevant to a specific tool or task

flyout

A button that opens a group of related tools or menu items

artistic text

A type of text to which you can apply special effects, such as shadows

paragraph text

A type of text to which you can apply formatting options, and which can be edited in large blocks

Getting help

2009-05-10T11:31:00.001-07:00

To use Help

Click Help } Help topics.
Click one of the following tabs:

Contents — lets you browse through topics in the Help
Index — lets you use the index to find a topic
Search — lets you search the full text of the Help for a particular word. For example, if you are looking for information about RGB color mode, you can type “RGB” to display a list of relevant topics.

You can also

View Help for a dialog box

Click the Help button.

Print a specific Help topic

Open a Help topic, click the frame you want to print, and click Print.

You can also launch Help by pressing F1.

Changing the language of the user interface and Help

2009-05-10T11:29:00.002-07:00

Updating Corel products :

Corel Update is an automatic feature that notifies you of updates to Corel products, downloads the updates, and installs them. Corel Update operates via the Web, so it requires an Internet connection.
You can set how often Corel Update checks for updates through the Start menu. It’s recommended that you set Corel Update to check for updates every 30 days or on starting the application. If you prefer, you can disable Corel Update altogether by choosing to never check for updates

Corel Support Services

Corel Support Services can provide you with prompt and accurate information about product features, specifications, pricing, availability, services, and technical support. For the most current information on support services available for your Corel product,

Documentation conventions
The following table describes important conventions used in the user guide and Help.

Convention

Description

Examples

Menu } Menu command

Click the menu item followed by the menu command.

Click File } Open.

list box

A list of options that drops down when a user clicks the down arrow button.

Choose a value from the Force field list box on the property bar.

docker

A window containing available commands and settings relevant to a specific tool or task.

Double-click the name of the group in the Timeline docker.

Enter

Enter key

Type a value in the Eraser thickness box on the property bar, and press Enter.

A note contains information that is important to the preceding steps. It can describe conditions under which the procedure can be performed.

You can’t copy or clone a compound blend. If you click the Equal margins button, you must specify values in the Top/left margin boxes.

A tip contains suggestions for performing the preceding steps. It can present alternatives to the steps, and other benefits and uses of the procedure. You can also create a hyperlink using the Internet toolbar.

Trimming an object can reduce the drawing file size.

Registering Corel products

2009-05-10T11:29:00.001-07:00

Registering Corel products is important. Registration provides you with timely access to the latest product updates, valuable information about product releases, and access to free downloads, articles, tips and tricks, and special offers.
You can register when you install the application or at a later date.
You can register using the following methods:

online — You can launch online registration if you are connected to the Internet when you install the Corel graphics application. If no Internet connection is detected, a list of options displays in a dialog box.
FTP — You can complete the registration form, and it will be sent automatically when an Internet connection is detected.

by phone — You can call the Corel Customer Service Center nearest you.
For more information about registering a Corel product, visit www.corel.com/support/register.

To install and uninstall an application

2009-05-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Close all applications.

Insert Disc 1 in the CD drive.

If the installation wizard does not start automatically, click Start on the Windows taskbar, and click Run. Type D:\Setup, where D is the letter that corresponds to the CD drive.
Follow the instructions in the installation wizard and enable one of the following options:

Typical — to install the default applications and components

Compact — to install the minimum components for the application to operate
Custom — to choose applications and writing tool components
Follow the instructions for installing and registering the application.

To uninstall applications

On the Windows taskbar, click Start } Control Panel.
If your operating system is Windows 2000 or earlier, click Start } Settings } Control Panel.
Double-click Add/Remove programs.
Choose a Corel application from the list, click Change/Remove, and enable the Remove all option in the dialog box.
If you want to remove all files, including user files, click Change, and enable the Remove user files checkbox.
If your operating system is Windows 2000 or earlier, click the Remove button.
Follow the InstallShield wizard instructions.

What’s new in CorelDRAW

2009-05-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

CorelDRAW includes new features and enhancements that will make your work easier.
Enhanced support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files
You can choose a variety of new options when exporting a drawing to the SVG file format. You can choose a Unicode encoding method. You can also embed information in an SVG file, or store information in externally linked files. The SVG color palette available in the application lets you choose SVG colors. For information about SVG files, see “Scalable Vector Graphics” in the Help.
Export for Office
CorelDRAW lets you optimize drawings for export to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office. For more information, see "To export to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office."
Multiple language support
CorelDRAW allows users to exchange files effortlessly, regardless of the language or operating system in which the file was created, ensuring that text displays correctly. For more information, see "Encoding text."
Dynamic guides
You can display dynamic guides to help you precisely position, align, and draw objects relative to other objects. Dynamic guides are temporary guides you can pull from the following snap points in objects — center, node, quadrant, and text baseline. For information, see "Using dynamic guides."
Drawing using shape recognition
CorelDRAW lets you can draw freehand strokes that are recognized and converted to basic shapes using the Smart drawing tool. CorelDRAW automatically smoothes any unrecognized shapes or curves drawn with the Smart drawing tool. For more information, see "Drawing using shape recognition."
Snapping enhancements
While you move or draw an object in CorelDRAW, you can snap it to another object in a drawing. You can snap an object to a number of snap points in the target object. When the pointer is close to a snap point, the snap point is highlighted, indicating it as the target that the pointer will snap to. For more information, see "Snapping objects."
Text alignment
CorelDRAW has enhanced text alignment. You can align text objects to other objects using the first text baseline, last text baseline, or the bounding box. For more information, see "To align text to an object."
Copying object properties, transformations, and effects
You can use the enhanced Eyedropper and Paintbucket tools to copy color, object properties, effects, and transformations from one object to another. For information about using the Eyedropper tool, see "Copying object properties, transformations, and effects."
Virtual segment delete tool
You can delete portions of objects, called virtual line segments, that are between intersections. For more information, see "To delete a virtual line segment."
Improved file compatibility
CorelDRAW has improved compatibility with many industry-standard file formats, such as Hewlett-Packard Plotter (PLT), AutoCAD Drawing Interchange Format (DXF), AutoCAD Drawing Database (DWG), Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM), Microsoft Word Document, and many more. For more information, see "File formats."
Enhanced symbols
Symbols are now easier to work with in CorelDRAW. The Library is now called the Symbol manager, allowing you to easily work with external symbols and symbol libraries. To simplify distinguishing between a symbol and an object, the selection handles around a symbol are now blue. As well, the controls for editing symbols are easier to access. 3-point drawing tools
Cursor improvements to the 3-point drawing tools let you easily specify width and height as you draw rectangles, ellipses, and curves.

CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X3 Packs an Easy-To-Use Graphics Punch

2009-05-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X3 Packs an Easy-To-Use Graphics Punch
By Steve Bain

Corel's flagship graphics suite has certainly developed a loyal worldwide following over the years. Reasons for this loyalty include the ease with which users can create sophisticated graphics and the suite's friendly interface and easy-to-use effects. Even newcomers to the suite find how fast and simple it is to create complex designs and perform fancy graphics tricks.

CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X3 delivers even more on this theme with a more intuitive interface and innovative learning resources. Let's take a look at several new features that really shine - including a new context-sensitive docker, a new feature called Insights from the Experts, and some key enhancements made to the main vector-handling capabilities in CorelDRAW.

Tips from Your Own Personal Trainer

If you're new to either CorelDRAW or Corel PHOTO-PAINT®, the new Hints docker may quickly become your best friend. It works like a personal training coach, providing step-based instructions on how to use the program. It displays real-time tips, techniques, and step-by-step directions for whatever tool or interactive effect you happen to be using at the moment.

For example, in CorelDRAW X3, when you click a complex star with the Shape Tool, the Hints docker immediately provides the steps needed to perform mirror editing on the shape (see below).

You can also use the Hints docker to learn how to use complex tools and effects in Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3. For example, when you select the Clone Tool while editing an image, the Hints docker instantly displays quick tutorial information on how to perform detailed photo-retouching operations by cloning from one area of an image onto another (see below).

To open the Hints docker in CorelDRAW X3 or PHOTO-PAINT X3, choose Help > Hints, or choose Window > Dockers > Hints. In its default state, the Hints docker shows a list of basic tasks in hyperlink form. Just click a heading to explore a topic, and use the Back and Forward buttons to navigate between pages as you would any browser. You can click the Home button to reset the list, or you can click the Help button to open the traditional Help application (see below).

To experience how helpful the Hints docker is, follow these quick steps on creating a rounded-corner rectangle, rotating it 45 degrees, and applying a linear fountain fill:

Launch CorelDRAW X3, open a new or existing document, and open the Hints docker by choosing Help > Hints.

Choose the Rectangle Tool (F6) from the Toolbox, and draw a rectangle. You're not sure how to draw a rectangle? Just read the steps displayed in the Hints docker (see below).

With the rectangle still selected, choose the Shape Tool (F10) from the Toolbox and round the corners interactively. If this procedure is new to you, use the Hints docker, which provides steps on how to round the rectangle corners (see below).

With the rectangle corners rounded, choose the Pick Tool (press Spacebar), and click the selected shape to display the interactive rotation and skewing handles. Rotate the rectangle 45 degrees, using the steps provided in the Hints docker (see below).

Apply a fountain fill to the rectangle by using the Interactive Fill Tool. If you've never used this particular tool before, just follow the instructions in the Hints docker to create and customize your fountain fill colors.

Expert Insights from Working Professionals

The new Insights from the Experts feature taps into the global Corel community and links you to a series of practical project tutorials written by experts. If you happen to frequent Corel's support newsgroups, you may even recognize some of the featured professionals, who include designers, illustrators, and cartoonists from Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere. To access this new feature, just choose Help > Insights from the Experts (see below).

The Insights from the Experts Web page introduces you to your host tutorial authors and describes the projects you can tackle (see below). Click a project graphic to open one of the tutorials in Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®.

By following these tutorials, you'll discover strategies and techniques from professionals who use CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. For example, you can learn photorealistic illustration effects, techniques for designing billboards and signage, and a method for creating t-shirt designs for screen printing (see below).

A Friendlier Face to Work With

Several improvements in CorelDRAW X3 make core competencies easier to use. If you're an experienced user upgrading to this version, the new Highlight What's New option lets you quickly ramp up to what's new and different. You can even customize the feature by choosing to highlight differences from specific past versions of either CorelDRAW X3 or Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3, as far back as version 9 (see below). The feature works independently of workspace preferences, which makes it truly convenient.

The color highlighting appears on Toolbox tools, Property Bar options, and menu commands (see below), so that you can quickly reap the benefits of recent changes virtually anywhere in the suite.

When you get down to the basics of vector drawing, you'll find that the new line drawing and editing functions in CorelDRAW X3 are now easier and more intuitive, thanks to new on-screen changes to feedback colors of nodes and curve handles. Node markers and curve handles now appear in blue instead of black. Curve handle markers are larger and now include arrowheads (see below), making them easier to spot against darker backdrops.

When the Shape Tool is being used for editing, unselected nodes appear as blue outlined markers, and selected nodes appear as solid blue squares. This same interface scheme is displayed when you use the Bézier Tool to draw shapes and lines (see below).

Improvements to object snapping and the accompanying on-screen snap point feedback in CorelDRAW X3 have made object snapping more precise. The location and display of perpendicular and tangent snap points make precision drawing much more intuitive (see below), improving on the extensive object-snapping capabilities added in version 12.

If you're a long-time CorelDRAW user, here's an enhancement you might easily miss. When the Shape Tool is used to edit object shapes, CorelDRAW has long allowed the curvature of curve segments to be altered by using a click-drag action. Improvements to the Shape Tool now enable you to move straight segments in the same way. Simply click anywhere on the line, and drag in any direction to reposition the segment while preserving its relative node positions (see below).

When working with objects created through tracing bitmap images or objects imported from other applications, you may often end up with excessive or redundant nodes. These extra nodes can sometimes cause problems in reproduction processes such as printing, plotting, or vinyl cutting. CorelDRAW X3 now includes a Reduce Nodes command button, which lets you instantly decrease the node population on a selected object without altering the object shape. You'll find this button on the Property Bar when you use the Shape Tool to edit a node selection.

To see just how efficient the Reduce Nodes command is, follow these quick steps:

Choose the Shape Tool (F10), and select a shape that includes an excessive number of object nodes.
Click the Select All Nodes button on the Property Bar to select all nodes on the object (see below). The Status Bar displays the total number of object nodes currently selected.

Click the Reduce Nodes button on the Property Bar to eliminate the redundant nodes (see below). What remains is the minimum number of nodes needed to describe the shape.

While the object nodes are still selected, you can check the Status Bar to see how many nodes were successfully eliminated. In the example below, the Reduce Nodes command was applied to an overly complex ellipse, reducing the node population from 128 to a mere 4 nodes without visibly altering the object shape.

Although we've looked at several of the new features that make the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 more powerful and intuitive to use, many users will already know why they've made it their graphics tool of choice. Ultimately, having more to like leads to more who like it.

CorelDRAW Tutorials

2009-05-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 Advances to the Next Level
By Steve Bain

A peek under the hood of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 hints at a change in the wind at Corel. Two years of development and more rigorous testing have brought to the suite better reliability and performance along with the many new tools, effects, and advancements. But it's the quality woven into the very fabric of the suite that really caught my eye. Maybe, it's the subtle sophistication that comes with maturity. Take a look at what's new, and you'll see what I mean.

CorelDRAW X3's New and Improved Tools
CorelDRAW X3 boasts a myriad of new and improved Toolbox components. The new innovations include an ingenious new Smart Fill tool, a new bitmap-cropping tool, an overhauled star-drawing tool, and significant improvements to the Shape Tool.

The Smart Fill Tool doesn't just apply fill colors to shapes, it also creates the shapes. Just use the Property Bar options to choose your fill and outline colors and the outline width, and click an enclosed area where any two shapes overlap (as shown below). The result is a new shape that exactly matches the area you clicked. The Smart Fill Tool simultaneously performs a shaping command and applies new fill and outline colors to the new object.

The Crop Tool enables you to interactively redefine the rectangular boundaries of an existing bitmap. Just marquee-select the area you wish to preserve, and double-click to permanently eliminate the unwanted pixels (as shown below).

The Polygon Tool seen in previous versions has been split in two separate tools to make drawing stellated (star) shapes easier for experts and less mysterious for new users. The Star Tool now enables you to draw simplified star shapes (formerly created using the Star mode of the Polygon Tool). The Complex Star Tool enables you to create the more complex stars shapes previously drawn with the Polygon Tool (as shown below).

Shapes created with the Complex Star Tool now include glyph nodes for controlling the position of the outer points when editing their shape at the node level (see below).

The Shape Tool has been enhanced to provide improved interactive feedback when you're making node selections and while manipulating nodes and curve segments. When making node selections, a new Property Bar option now enables you to choose between Freehand or Rectangular selection modes (see below).

Vector editing is now easier and more intuitive thanks to the new Shape Tool onscreen feedback during node editing sessions. Nodes and curve markers now appear in blue, and curve handles now sport arrowhead shapes (see below), making them easier to differentiate from surrounding elements. These markers also appear while you're drawing curves with the Bezier Tool.

New Object-Shaping Commands

If you've ever tried to manually round or bevel the point where two straight lines join, you'll appreciate the three new shaping commands in CorelDRAW X3. You can now instantly apply symmetrical chamfering, filleting, or scalloping commands to objects. These corner-shaping effects can be applied to a specific radius value by using a new a docker (shown below), essentially eliminating the time-consuming workarounds needed to accomplish the same effect.

Chamfering enables you to apply inside rounding to straight corners, while filleting applies the inverse of this shaping effect (as shown below). Scalloping enables you to create a flattened-corner effect of a specific length.

You can apply these shape commands to all corners of an object selected by using the Pick Tool, or apply the effects only to specifically selected points by using the Shape Tool (see below)

While we're on the subject of shaping, you'll also find an object cut-line/keyline command available in this version. The Create Boundary command enables you to create a new shape based on the enclosed area created by any overlapping shapes. You can access it from the Shaping portion of the Property Bar (shown below) or from the Object menu.

The new shape is closed and is based on your current fill and outline property defaults. The Create Boundary command can be applied to both vector and bitmap objects. In the illustration shown below, the Create Boundary command was applied to three overlapping rectangles to produce a new shape that precisely matches the outline of the selected overlapping shapes.

New Dynamic-Beveling Effects

Of all the new features, CorelDRAW X3's new dynamic Bevel effect is the only bitmap-based effect you'll see. This cleverly implemented new effect enables you to quickly create realistic-looking three- dimensional effects from flat two- dimensional shapes by way of a new Bevel docker (shown below).

Your object's current fill color serves as the basic color scheme for the effect, with options available for controlling the bevel offset, the shadow color, as well as lighting color, direction, intensity, and altitude options. The effects are dynamic, meaning they can be persistently editable and can be applied by using a flat Emboss style, or realistically by using a Soft Edge style (see below).

Improved Text Resources for Typographic Experts

Text-related tools and resources in both CorelDRAW X3 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT® X3 have been overhauled to include professional-level features sure to please both pundits and critics alike. The logistics behind text formatting is more clearly defined, and you can now insert coding for line and column breaks, and add professional-level hyphens, dashes, and spaces.

CorelDRAW X3 includes two re-engineered text dockers (see below) that supplement, rather than repeat, options found on the Property Bar when you format text.

The new Paragraph Formatting and Character Formatting dockers enable you to apply property changes at the object level by using the Pick Tool, or at the character level by using the Text Tool. As in other professional layout applications, the text docker properties in CorelDRAW X3 are logically organized by style type. Each option area in the dockers can expand or collapse, as needed. The choice of specific text options is menu-based (see below).

The dockers themselves are context-sensitive, which means that they display the current properties of the selected text object or character string. This subtle but important shift in docker operation means that the changes you apply to character or paragraph properties occur instantly - you don't have to click an Apply button as you would in other CorelDRAW dockers. Although the management of typographic properties in CorelDRAW has migrated through several different interface methods over the years, these redesigned dockers offer the smartest solution yet.

Typography professionals will certainly welcome the new special character-coding capabilities of CorelDRAW X3. By choosing Text > Insert Formatting Code, you can access commands for inserting special-function characters (see below). Adding these characters can improve the typographic readability of your designs. You can now control the size of spaces, dashes, and hyphens in text and limit the amount of text in a paragraph text frame. The new formatting codes in CorelDRAW X3 enable you to insert space characters, such as em, ¼-em, en, nonbreaking spaces, and column or frame breaks, into your text.

Advanced dash and hyphen formatting codes enable you to add em and en dashes, and nonbreaking or optional hyphens. You can insert any of the special formatting characters when you import text. You can also use shortcut keys for codes when typing an artistic or paragraph text string. You can also create your own lists of hyphenation exceptions by using the Custom Option Hyphens dialog (see below). Hyphenation can now be toggled on or off for specific text objects using command menus.

New Dynamic Text-to-Path Controls

If you create effects involving text applied to a path, you'll see how much more smoothly this effect can be applied with CorelDRAW X3. Manipulating text on a path is enormously easier, thanks to the new dynamic previewing capabilities.

You can adjust the text position on the path more easily and adjust the path offset interactively. The dynamic feedback shows you the new position of the character string measured to the text baseline position, and an on-screen display shows the precise text-to-path offset value (see below). By dragging the glyph node, you can access a crosshair pointer for controlling the text position on the path, and you can drag the text above or below the path to control the path offset.

The revamped text-to-path Property Bar (see below) also includes several new options. You can quickly mirror the text orientation by using the Mirror Horizontally option and/or Mirror Vertically option. You can also use and control the new Tick Snapping option, which enables you to specify snapping increments for offsets as you position the text in relation to the path.

Better Bullet Options

When it comes to structuring point-form text, you can more easily access and customize bullet effects for selected text. Although CorelDRAW has always enabled you to apply and format bullets, you now have more options and better access to this feature. Just choose Text > Bullets for access to the Bullets dialog (see below), independently of the Text Formatting dialog.

Using the Bullets dialog options, you can customize your bullet characters using any symbol font installed on your system. New options also enable you to automatically set the space between the bullet character and the first character in the string, eliminating the need to devise a tab character arrangement (see below).

Integrated Bitmap Tracing

You no longer need to launch a separate application to trace bitmap images into vectors. Corel's new PowerTRACE utility is now accessible from a single dialog launched from the Bitmap menu or the Bitmap portion of the Property Bar (as shown below).

PowerTRACE includes many of the features previously available in CorelTRACE, but also includes an impressive toolset for customizing and manipulating the colors of the newly traced vector shapes. PowerTRACE features six different tracing modes which provide varying degrees of tracing quality and accuracy. You can also apply a Quick Trace command that is applied almost instantly at basic settings, without opening the dialog.

The example shown below illustrates the tracing results of a digital photo traced by using the Quick Trace command, which generated just 76 objects.

Advanced Color Support

Although applying fill and outline overprints at the object level in CorelDRAW is nothing new, what's new is what you see when one color is set to overprint an underlying color (shown below). You can now choose Enhanced with Overprints (the default view setting) as a view mode to enable you to preview the overprints you manually apply to objects in your drawing.

Expanded Object Layer and Page Ordering

If you're accustomed to working on layers, you'll appreciate the added object ordering commands. You can now control the object layering either within a layer or within the page structure by using new Order commands (shown below). You can use command menus or keyboard shortcuts to quickly change the order of selected objects in relation to their current layer order, or within the page structure.

Recouped Object-Copy Handling Power

CorelDRAW X3 enables you to create copies of selected objects in many ways using a variety of techniques. Improvements in this area make locating the Duplicate offset options easier. The first time you use the Duplicate command (Ctrl+D), a dialog opens (as shown below) prompting you to set and/or confirm your current duplicate options.

The Clone command has returned to the default workspace of CorelDRAW X3 after an absence from last version. You can create a clone by choosing Edit > Clone, to establish a relationship between your clone and its master. The Select Master and Revert to Master commands are available via right- mouse button functionality.

A new Step and Repeat docker now enables you to create multiple copies of selected objects at specified offsets. To toggle display of the docker (shown below), choose Edit > Step and Repeat (Ctrl+Shift+D).

New and Improved Image-Manipulation Tools

A new fully-equipped Image Adjustment Lab (shown below) is now available in both CorelDRAW X3 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3, enabling you to quickly correct color and exposure flaws in digital images. This new lab enables you to correct images by creating snapshots of previewed settings for evaluation before making a selection. Adjust image properties manually by using the dialog sliders, or simply click Auto Adjust to apply instant corrections. Auto Adjust can also be applied via command menus without the need to open the dialog.

Revamped Photo-PAINT Cutout Lab

The beefed up Cutout Lab available in Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 now enables you to fine- tune the defined areas you wish to isolate in an image and use new previewing, background, clip mask, and image- preserving options (as shown below).

New Spot Color and Alpha Channel Options
Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 includes two new Channel docker options (shown below) for you to use when preparing and manipulating digital images. You may now create new alpha channels as an option from the Channels docker options menu. You may also create new spot color channels enabling you to preserve spot color information for color printing. The spot colors you add can be previewed as either opaque or transparent relative to other colors. Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 images that include spot color channels can also be saved in PSD, DCS, PDF, or EPS file formats.

Integrated Raw Camera File Support

The CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 now includes Raw Shooter, an application that enables you to open and edit the image censor information stored by high-end digital cameras. Raw Shooter 2005 now supports file formats from various manufacturers, including NEF, CRW, DCR, ORF, and MRW.

Advanced PDF Publishing Power
When it comes to digitally publishing your CorelDRAW X3 or Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 documents, you'll have access to the latest in security advancements. The improved Publish to PDF filter enables you to produce documents that can be viewed with Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® or viewed online with the Acrobat Reader browser plug-in. Although PDF publishing isn't new, the PDF Security options (see below) now enable you to protect the documents you create with passwords for opening, printing, editing, and copying the newly created PDF document.

When using PDF permissions, you can control if and when the document can be opened, edited, or printed. When a Document Open password is used to encrypt a PDF document, Acrobat Reader requires the password to be entered before the document can be viewed, copied, edited, and/or printed. Smarter Learning Resources

If you're a newcomer to CorelDRAW or Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you'll no doubt benefit from the new Hints docker (shown below). It provides task-based directions on how to use program tools and features. The Hints docker is also now context-sensitive, meaning it includes a live-update feature that displays information relevant to whatever tool or feature you select as you work.

A new Insights from the Experts feature links you to a series of project tutorials in PDF format written by well-known experts from the Corel community that guide you through strategies and techniques on how to tackle a wide variety of design projects.

If you're an experienced user who's upgrading, you can quickly get yourself up to speed on what's new and improved from specific past versions using the Highlight What's New. It activates color highlighting to indicated tools, menu commands, and Property Bar options new since previous versions (shown below).

We've really just scratched the surface of what's new and improved in the CorelDRAW X3 Graphics Suite. There are certainly more new features you'll want to explore on your own. In the coming months, we'll take a closer look at how you can benefit from many of the new tools and features in the suite.

Steve Bain is an award-winning illustrator and designer, and the author of nearly a dozen books, including CorelDRAW: The Official Guide.

Producing a logo and short publication with Corel Draw

2009-05-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

This tutorial was produced for Draw 7 but the advice contained is still useful for more recent versions.

Introduction

Corel Draw was the first of the Windows-based drawing programs and has built on this early start to become far-and-away the dominant drawing package on the PC. Its biggest strength - and its biggest potential limitation - is its all-encompassing approach. In the past this has led to accusations of unfocussed bloating, but with version 7.0 Corel have addressed the criticisms with a far tighter and better rationalized program. Even so, there's a huge range of functionality to cover.

Real World Project

Essentially this functionality falls into two main categories: the creation of design-intensive illustrations and the production of page-based publications. We're going to tackle both aspects by looking at a typical real world project, the creation of a logo and its incorporation into a brochure. Designing the logo will cover all the fundamental skills of adding elements and transforming, arranging and formatting them. Creating the layout will build on these skills and involve setting up the page grid, managing imported text and graphics and preparing final output.

Our project is based on the launch of a new scheme called "Building The Future", an initiative by Volunteer Development Scotland designed to help organisations wanting to encourage the involvement of young people. Broadly then, our job is to create a logo and brochure with a young and progressive feel and with overtones of construction and bridge building. For the logo, we might only have three words to play with, but we need to attract the eye and also to get over these subliminal messages. Fortunately, the artistic handling of text through the text tool (F8) is one of the central features that sets Corel Draw apart from both DTP and bitmap editing rivals.

Type Matters

Typeface is absolutely crucial so it's essential to have a look at our text in a full range of different typefaces. One of Corel Draw's strengths is the huge range of over 1,000 fonts that it comes with, provided in both TrueType and Postscript Type 1 format. As our final publication is going to be typeset, it's preferable to stick to the latter, which will mean having to install Adobe Type Manager if it is not already set up on your system. Corel Draw's Format Text dialog (Ctrl + T) previews the first few words of any selected text so it allows the quick choice of likely contenders. In our case, elaborate or serif faces would obviously clash with the simple and youthful theme, but that still leaves all the sans serif faces.

By combining the Font command with the Duplicate command (Ctrl + D) it's possible to quickly build up a page of possibilities to choose from. To ensure that the duplications are automatically positioned where we want them, their placement can be set with the General tab of the Options command (Ctrl + J) under the Tools menu. Alternatively, to quickly copy an object you can simply select it and press the + key on the numeric keypad. It will be easier to control the process if we first zoom out to the full page (F4) and then hone in on the most likely choices with the Zoom lasso (F2).

In our case the strong suggestions of engineering and modernity in the phrase "Building The Future" help pick out two fonts. To stress the most important final word we can use the condensed and angular - and so bold and futuristic - Fujiyama, while for the others we can use the lighter and more geometrical - and so more open and inviting - Avalon. For any design to succeed it must simultaneously offer both variety and contrast and coherence and balance, and our choice of these complementary but very different fonts does just that. They are by no means the only fonts that could work, but they do offer the most important principle of successful design, an internal logic. In other words, they have a good reason for being the way they are.

Shapes

A lot can be done graphically using just text, but other elements can help to give the design a unity and to set it apart. The basic shapes are created with the rectangle (F6) and oval (F7) tools, which can be forced to produce regular squares and circles by holding down Corel's "constrain" key, the Ctrl key. The Shift key is used to draw the shape outwards from its centre. Newer tools that are particularly useful for logo work are the polygon, spiral and grid tools. Version 7's Property Bar is particularly useful for controlling these, for example, to change the number of points in a polygon to make it into a triangle. To make changes interactively, to change the indent of the star for example, the Shape tool (F10) is used.

In the past all polygons, such as our triangle, had to be laboriously created on an individual basis using the line tool (F5). Nowadays the line tool is used far less, but still comes into its own on less structured work such as illustration. Regular straight lines are produced by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking end points. Curves can be drawn freehand by simply dragging on screen, or more accurately by controlling nodes with the Bezier tool. A new and excellent addition is the natural pen tool which works like a thick marker pen. Rather than producing vector-based lines, this tool actually produces shapes that can be given a fill. In practice, this means that it is possible to create much more natural, free flowing designs that escape from the overly computerised look.

Symbols

With such tools the number of shapes you can produce is literally unlimited, but there is no harm in having someone else do the work for you. Corel obviously comes with a huge selection of over 30,000 clipart images that theoretically could be used, but for professional work the phrase "barge pole" springs to mind. Of course amongst the dross there are still some areas, such as the design-neutral signs or maps, which can prove handy. Far more regularly useful though are the range of graphical devices accessed from the Symbols roll-up (Ctrl + F11). The different categories offered are actually the different symbol fonts that you have installed on your system. Corel allows any of the characters of each font to be dragged onto your design and manipulated like any other shape. With general bullet-style fonts, like Wing Dings or Zapf Dingbats, and dedicated symbol fonts, like Geographic or Sonata, these are an excellent source of pre-built and ready-to-use graphical elements.

Now that we have the different basic components of our logo, we can get them exactly the way we want them with the different transformation commands. All elements can be sized with the handles of their bounding box so that our separate words, for example, can be sized to reflect their relative importance. Generally speaking, as there will be good aesthetic reasons why the typeface is the shape it is, the aspect ratio shouldn't be changed so only drag on the object's corner handles. Holding down the Shift key centres the scaling effect while the Ctrl key means that the selected object's size can only be doubled, tripled and so on. Holding down the Ctrl key and dragging a handle through the object is a quick way of mirroring it.

Transforming

Any object can be interactively rotated or skewed by first double clicking on it, which turns the bounding box handles into arrows. Dragging on the corner arrows rotates the object, while dragging on the centre arrows skews the object. Again holding down the Ctrl key constrains the transformation, limiting angles to multiples of 15 degrees. More control and precision is offered from the Transform roll-up and in particular from the proxy which allows the centre of rotation or skewing to be set to any of the bounding box handles. The Transform roll-up also has the major advantage that it offers quick access to all of the major options - positioning (Alt + F7), rotating (Alt + F8), scaling (Alt + F9), sizing (Alt + F10), and skewing (Alt + F11),.

Such basic transformations are by far the most useful, but Corel Draw also offers a number of more advanced effects such as perspective, enveloping, extrusion and contouring. Adding perspective is an interactive process of dragging corner handles, but each of the other effects is accessed from a single Effects roll-up. In each case the power is impressive. When creating a 3D-style effect, for example, there are separate panels for controlling the level of extrusion, the object's rotation in 3D space, its formatting and lighting and even the bevel of its edges. Don't let the power go to your head, however. Star Wars-style effects can be striking, but more often than not they are inappropriate and they are always less legible than straight text. One of the basic principles of design is "less is more".

One of the most impressive features of Corel Draw is that even after such advanced effects have been applied, the text remains editable either directly with the text tool or within the Edit Text dialog (Shift + Ctrl + T). Occasionally though it is desirable to edit the actual shapes of the letters. To be able to do this the text must first be converted to curves with the command under the Layout menu (Ctrl + Q) and then broken apart (Ctrl + K) so that each letter is separate. Using the shape tool (F10) it is then possible to select nodes to control individual letter shapes to produce one-off logos such as those for Coca Cola and Ferrari.

Composing

Now that all our elements have been added and where necessary transformed, we are ready to arrange them as a composition. Moving objects is a simple case of dragging and dropping, with the Ctrl key used to force movement to either the vertical or horizontal. For fine tuning it is often easier to use the cursor keys to nudge the objects into place, with the Ctrl key's "super nudge" multiplying the effect to produce larger movements. The distances moved by nudging are again set with the General tab of the Tool menu's Options command (Ctrl J). Since Corel Draw's defaults are rather strange it is probably a good idea to change these to more sensible options such as 1mm and 5mm respectively.

When arranging multiple objects you will often find that one object is concealing another. This is due to the stacking order whereby recently drawn objects obscure those created previously. This is easily sorted with the Bring Forward One / Send Back One or the more conclusive Bring to Front (Shift PgUp) / Send to Back (Shift PgDn) commands under the Arrange menu. The most common problem is that because an object is completely hidden it is difficult to select. This can often be overcome by careful lasso selecting or by temporarily switching to wireframe mode and clicking on the outline of the object you are after. As a last resort, tabbing will select each element in turn according to the stacking order.

Alignment and Grouping

For our logo it is best to optically position the various elements, perhaps to have certain letters lining up or to make sure that they don't. Often though you will want to use Corel Draw's Alignment command (Ctrl A). This allows multiple objects to be automatically aligned both vertically and horizontally, or to be evenly distributed. All elements align themselves on the last object selected or, if the objects have been lasso selected, on the bottom element in the stacking order. Alignment is such a common task that it is worth recognising the shortcuts available within the dialog. Selecting multiple objects and typing Ctrl A, Alt C, Alt E, Enter, for example, will automatically centre them vertically and horizontally.

Once the logo elements have been positioned and aligned, they can be grouped together so that they are then treated as a single unit with the Group command (Ctrl G). In fact it is still possible to isolate individual objects within a group by holding down the trusty Ctrl key when selecting. To permanently separate the elements, use the Ungroup command (Ctrl + U). Groups can be nested so that complex illustrations and designs can be assembled with multiple grouped building blocks. As it is often difficult to tell whether you have selected an object or a group, it is always a good idea to keep your eye on the status bar's feedback.

Combining

Combining is very different to grouping as it is used to create a single new object. To produce a square shape with a round hole in it, for example, you would draw the two shapes and then use the Combine command (Ctrl + L) to join them into one. Combining creates some very striking and important effects. For example, combining text with a shape will leave any overlapping text as black and text within the shape will be a "clipping path" showing any underlying objects. Corel Draw also now offers a number of variations on the combination theme for creating new shapes from overlapping objects. As you would expect these options - intersecting, trimming and welding - are all accessed from another of the ever-present roll-ups.

Formatting

So far, to add some variety, I've been applying colours to objects using the on-screen palette down the right hand side of the screen. Now it's time to get a bit more serious about formatting and look at the options offered by the fill tool. If our final output is going to be produced on a colour printer or through full colour process separations our choices are practically unlimited. Uniform fills can be chosen from the palette or mixed to order. There are nine main mixing models to choose from, but the most common are RGB (red, green, blue), HLS (hue, lightness, saturation) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, black). Since our work is going to be output on paper, if we stick to colours created with the CMYK model we will know that they can be reproduced.

Corel Draw also offers a huge range of other fill types. The Fountain Fill dialog allows linear, radial, conical and square gradients to be set up between any number of colours with precise control over parameters such as edge padding and offset. As it's hard to imagine how the effect will look, it's much better to apply simple gradients with the new interactive fill tool. Similar but even more striking effects can be created where objects overlap by using the new interactive transparency tool. This is particularly useful for glass and shadow effects, but does take a lot longer to print and in any case would be over the top for our logo where simplicity is crucial.

The same can probably be said for the other advanced fill options on offer, though for other tasks such as illustration, they can be invaluable. The Pattern dialog hides a wealth of choices. The default 2-colour bitmap patterns are very simple and useful primarily for hatching effects. The vector options supplied are universally garish, but your own patterns can be created by simply loading an existing Draw file. The third bitmap option enables any external paint file to be used as a fill, which enables amazingly realistic texture fills with scans of actual wood grain or marbling, for example. The only problem with such effects is that they are very memory and processor-intensive and so, by preference, Corel offers the Texture dialog which recreates the irregular fills of nature using fractals.

Spot Colour

Such variety and flexibility is impressive, but coming back to the real world, we have to recognise our budget limits. Our brochure is going out to commercial print, but we simply can't afford the costs of full colour separations and printing. Instead we must make do with spot colour, in other words black and one other colour. We want the colour to be striking, contrast well with black and add to our modern feel so an obvious choice is yellow. To select which yellow, it's back to the Uniform Fill dialog and this time to the palettes option. Clicking on the drop-down list box shows the different libraries on offer ranging from Focoltone to Userinks. Each refers to an external standard for recreating a set colour accurately.

Your commercial printer might work with a number of these models, but the one standard they are certain to accept is Pantone. In fact there are a number of Pantone models, but the one we are after is the basic Pantone Matching System. Clicking on any of the colours in the palette will then show its Pantone number, which is all the printer will need to know to mix up the desired ink. In fact, because the screen representation will never be entirely accurate, the colour should actually be chosen from the Pantone paper reference which shows all the 2,000 or so available colours on coated and uncoated paper. If you are serious about design it's also a good idea to get the Pantone tints book which accurately shows how percentage tints of each of the most popular Pantone colours will turn out.

Outlining

We've been talking about colour with regard to fills, but exactly the same uniform colours are also available for outlines. Other options include dashes and line endings and line width - which should normally be measured in points rather than Corel's default of inches! To add a bit of movement and flow, so that the line is not the same width throughout, it is possible to produce calligraphic effects by stretching and then angling the nib. Two very important but often-overlooked options are those for scaling the line with the object and for hiding the outline behind the fill. The first option is crucial if you want the proportions of your line to change when an object is resized, the second is particularly useful for outlining text where you do not want the actual letter shape to be obscured. By default both options are set to off but, by ensuring that no object is selected when you call up the dialog, it is possible to change the settings for all new graphical and text objects respectively.

So far we might only have come up with three words, a rotated triangle and a colour, but we've explored a huge range of Corel Draw's basic functionality. All of these skills will come in useful in the second half of the job, producing the brochure. The first stage in this is to set up the page with the Layout menu's Page Setup command. Our brochure is going to be a standard double-sided A5 leaflet and as such we could design it as four A5 portrait pages. However, as the reader is always aware of the double page spread, we will take this into account and design it as a two page, A4, landscape publication.

Setting Up The Page

This means we have to split the single onscreen A4 page into two. In a DTP program this would be a simple case of setting margins and columns, but in Corel Draw the process is considerably more laborious and involves individually adding guides. Horizontal and vertical guides can be dragged from the rulers onto the page where they are indicated as blue dashed lines. This is fine for optical alignment but we need more precision. Fortunately we can use the transformation skills learned earlier.

First we need to draw a rectangle the exact size of our page. We could use the Size dialog (Alt + F10), but in fact this can be done automatically with the Add Page Frame command in the Page Setup dialog. Now we can select this frame and call up the Scale and Mirror roll-up (Alt + F9). Using the proxy (click on the dialog's down arrow if this is not visible) we can select a corner as the origin of the transformation and then set the horizontal scale to 50% and click Apply. Our page is automatically split into two and, after zooming in (F2), we can drag a dividing guideline into place. Now selecting our rectangle again, we can set the centre of the transformation to the centre of the proxy and set both the horizontal and vertical scale to 85% and again click Apply. Now we can drag in four new guidelines to the edges of the resized rectangle that will act as the A5 page's margins.

In fact, as such regular and symmetrical layouts are hardly eye-catching, we're going to create a different grid with thin side columns next to the main body copy. Again the process involved is the same: adding rectangles, scaling them and dragging in guidelines. Making the most of our two colours we can set one side column to be yellow and the other to be black. That's a good start but still a bit regular for the young and active feel we are after. To break up the layout - again adding variety to the symmetry - we can bring in a design motif. The existing Volunteer Development Scotland logo is based on two simple, bridge-like arcs that are ideal for the job if stretched across the full double page spread.

Applying Text

Now that the basic layout is ready, it's time to bring in the text. Corel Draw supports a whole range of WP formats which can be used for importing longer sections of text, while shorter sections can be typed on-screen or in the Edit Text dialog (Ctrl + Shift + T). Blocks of "paragraph text" - as opposed to the single lines of "artistic text" we used for the logo - are created by simply dragging on screen with the text tool. Any text that is then added is automatically word wrapped within the boundaries of this text box. Resizing the box now affects the length of the line rather than the point size of the text. In fact Corel Draw 7 now offers the best of both worlds as, if the Alt key is held down when resizing, the actual size of the text can still be changed.

This flexibility is excellent for standalone items like addresses, but for our main body copy the text formatting must obviously remain consistent. To format a whole block it is possible to select it with the pick tool and then change the point size or typeface, for example, from the Property Bar. It is also possible to interactively change spacing by selecting a text block and then the shape tool (F10). Dragging the vertical arrow that appears will change line spacing while dragging the horizontal arrow will change letter spacing. Holding down the Ctrl key and dragging will change paragraph and word spacing respectively.

Formatting Text

This is fine if all the text in a block is to be formatted identically, but most text will actually include a range of different formatting, in our case, to indicate subheadings and bullets. Remember that, if you do ever regret a change, you can always use Corel's multiple levels of undo (Ctrl Z) to revert to the way you were. To change the formatting for individual paragraphs then the text or paragraph must first be selected with the text tool and the Format Text dialog called (Ctrl T). A typical example would be to automatically add a graphical bullet.

To ensure consistency, so that all bullets are exactly the same for example, Corel Draw's use of styles comes into play. The idea for these has been imported from word processors and DTP programs, but the implementation is slightly different and comparatively awkward as styles can be applied just as easily to objects as to text. Rather than defining a style from scratch it is easier to format a paragraph the way you want it and then to right-click to call up the shortcut menu. This has a Save Style Properties option which allows you to name the style and to choose exactly which attributes, from font and effects through to outline and fill, that you want to be saved in it. To then apply those attributes to any other paragraph you simply right-click again and this time choose the Apply Style option.

Watch Out

Such control is impressive, especially when you add in advanced word processing features such as background spell checking, a thesaurus and automatic correction of typing errors. Even so a strong warning has to be made. Corel Draw has taken a full seven versions to get anywhere near acceptable in its text handling and even now at times it seems unable to cope. Small bugs include obviously incorrect point sizes on the Property Bar and the insistence on changing defaults even when you only want to change the particular selected text. Such failures are irritating but can be worked around unlike the regular but mysterious GPFs. Essentially remember to save repeatedly when working with text and appreciate the program's limitations. For any job over a couple of pages I would always turn to a DTP program.

With logo, layout and text now sorted we're on the home stretch, looking to make fine adjustments and perhaps to catch the eye a bit more. We could try and bring in some clipart, but after all this work we don't want to spoil things with a gratuitous American "celebrity" or Victorian woodcut. Instead we can build on the modern look and clean lines of our existing design by reusing the simple triangle from the logo and making it into a repeating device. On the outside pages this can be used in yellow to highlight the all-important address while on the inside it can be used in white against a yellow tint to give some variety and also to make the most out of our colour options.

Photographs are another matter entirely and it would certainly be nice to incorporate one. Basically people like looking at people and, as it stands, our design is a little impersonal. Corel Draw 7's handling of imported bitmaps is excellent with all the DTP-style options such as resizing and cropping and text wrap. Even better though are the new photo-editing features such as the advanced colour correction and special effect filters that approach and, in many cases, outdo dedicated packages. Corel Draw comes with its own partner program Photo-Paint (see box-out) for pixel level control, but more and more power is now being built directly into the drawing module.

Text on Curves

Unfortunately for our design this is all rather academic. Since the brochure is for a scheme that is still being set up, there aren't any appropriate images to include. The best we can do is to try and find another way of adding a bit of life. Text on a curve is relatively unusual and striking and by crossing our double page spread will help tie the layout together. First the artistic text is added and its letter spacing stretched to give the effect room to work. Next the curve is created. To make sure it is accurate the existing arc is copied and then using the Knife tool the relevant section isolated. To combine the two they are selected and the Fit Text To Path command chosen. This calls up a roll-up for setting overall positioning, while the Shape tool can be used for interactive fine-tuning.

Preparing for Output

Our design is now ready for proofing. Corel Draw offers comprehensive control over the printing process with options for scaling and tiling, for example, that could be useful if we wanted to reproduce the centre pages for an exhibition board. For our brochure though the most relevant options - only available when printing to Postscript printers - are those for producing separations. For process output we would ensure that all colours were converted to CMYK, while for spot colour we can just select our two colours.

Normally colours are set to "knock out" those beneath them to prevent a yellow object over a green background printing as blue for example. Although this solves one problem it leads to another because, unless the press registration is perfect, tiny areas of white will now appear around the coloured object. The way around this is to "trap" them, to imperceptibly expand the colour in areas of overlap. Corel Draw can do this automatically with its auto-spreading capability. While this works well in most cases, it is best to check exactly what is happening by setting a very high auto-spread width and printing proofs. If there are problem areas, these can normally be solved by judicious use of hairline outlines on the objects involved.

Thankfully, for our design we can set black to automatically overprint which avoids these problems at a stroke and leaves our finished master work ready to go for final output and commercial print. That's not quite the end of the job as the typesetter/printer still has to output separations, check them against our proofs, and produce the final printing plates. With everything ready for final print though our job is finished.

Tom Arah

Artists and Graphic Designers Market... F&W Media New $29.99	Malaysia Journal of Computer Science... Mlis/Fac Cmptr Sci... New $30.00	Computing Software Nielsen Company New $490.59
Cti Directory of Psychology Software... Cti Centre for Psy... New $24.29	Graphic Design in Japan - Japan Maruzen Co Ltd New $190.00	Teaching Mathematics and Computer Sc... Inst Mathematics I... New $116.20
CD Export France - CD-Rom - Microsof... Bourse De Commerce... New $664.29	CD Export France - CD-Rom - Microsof... Bourse De Commerce... New $221.43	Software Directory for the Offshore ... Marine Tech Direct... New $137.62

Privacy Information

Recall Software Guide Univ of Hull Cti M... New $24.41	Computing Software Nielsen Company New $492.88	CD Export France - CD-Rom - Microsof... Bourse De Commerce... New $222.92
Malaysia Journal of Computer Science... Mlis/Fac Cmptr Sci... New $30.00	Artists and Graphic Designers Market... F&W Media New $29.99	Directory Of Computer And Software R... Lebhar Friedman In... New $600.00
Uist - Proceedings Of The Acm Sympos... Assn for Computing... New $42.00	Teaching Mathematics and Computer Sc... Inst Mathematics I... New $116.98	Conference On Functional Programming... Assn for Computing... New $48.00

Privacy Information

The Other Draw Tools

For the publication we are producing, Corel Draw itself offers all the functionality we need, but the suite as a whole offers far more. In the past the number of extra applications supplied became ridiculous and the core power of the suite was in severe danger of becoming lost. Version 7 has halted the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink philosophy and has focussed on two complementary modules, Photo-Paint and Dream 3D.

Photo-Paint is a comprehensive bitmap editor that is capable of giving Photoshop a run for its money. The latest version has worked hard on improving the feeling of integration with Draw with a similar streamlined interface, property bar and features such as click-and-drag object transparency. With functionality like its natural media brushes and Internet support, Photo-Paint has one of the most complete feature lists available. Overall, the program is more than capable for any photo-editing task, but its general lack of speed rules it out for professional work.

The other main module is Dream 3D. This offers drag-and-drop creation of 3D scenes with a reasonable range of 3D objects, textures, backgrounds and lighting effects. New objects can be created and existing objects edited with advanced deformation tools such as bend, shatter and twist. It is even possible to paint interactively onto surfaces with a 3D paintbrush. Performance is comparatively fast so that objects do not necessarily have to be handled in wireframe, which is a huge advance in terms of usability. Against this though there are no options for animation, which is a huge limitation in terms of functionality.

Even if Dream 3D did offer animation I'm not convinced that the average user is ready to tackle the complexities of professional 3D. For many, a better option would be to install the basic Corel Depth or to limit themselves to Draw's own extrusion effects. Other utilities on the Corel Draw CD-ROMs include Corel Trace that can be used to convert bitmaps to vector graphics and also offers basic OCR; Corel Texture that allows the creation of natural textures and Corel Script that allows the creation of macros and advanced add-ons for Draw and Photo-Paint. Perhaps most useful of all is Corel Multimedia Manager that gives access to the huge range of supplied vector and bitmap images.

ABOUT CorelDRAW

2009-05-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel Corporation of Ottawa, Canada. It is also the name of Corel's Graphics Suite. Its latest version, named X4 (actually version 14), was released in January 2008.

Supported platforms

CorelDRAW was originally developed for Microsoft Windows and currently runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista.^[1] The current version, X4, was released (ver. 14.0.0.567) on 22nd January, 2008.

Versions for Mac OS and Mac OS X were at one time available, but due to poor sales these were discontinued. The last port for Linux was version 9 (released in 2000, it didn't run natively, instead it used a modified version of Wine to run) and the last version for OS X was version 11 (released in 2001). Also, up until version 5, CorelDRAW was developed for Windows 3.1x and OS/2.

Development history

In 1987, Corel hired software engineers Michel Bouillon and Pat Beirne to develop a vector-based illustration program to bundle with these desktop publishing systems. That program, CorelDRAW, was initially released in 1989. The program was well received, and Corel soon focused on software alone.

CorelDRAW 1.x and 2.x runs under Windows 2.x and 3.0. CorelDRAW 3.0 came into its own with Microsoft's release of Windows 3.1. The inclusion of TrueType in Windows 3.1 transformed CorelDRAW into a serious illustration program capable of using system-installed outline fonts without requiring third party software such as Adobe Type Manager and also was the first all-in-one Graphics Suite, which combined a vector graphics software with a photo editing program (PhotoPaint), a font manager and several other pieces of software included with each version.

Characteristic features

Several innovations to vector-based illustration originated with CorelDRAW: a node-edit tool that operates differently on different objects, fit text-to-path, stroke-before-fill, quick fill/stroke color selection palettes, perspective projections, mesh fills and complex gradient fills.^{[citation needed]}

CorelDRAW differentiates itself from its competitors in a number of ways:

The first is its positioning as a graphics suite, rather than just a vector graphics program. A full range of editing tools allow the user to adjust contrast, color balance, change the format from RGB to CMYK, add special effects such as vignettes and special borders to bitmaps. Bitmaps can also be edited more extensively using Corel PhotoPaint, opening the bitmap directly from CorelDRAW and returning to the program after saving. It also allows a laser to cut out any drawings.

CorelDRAW's capability to handle multiple pages along with multiple master layers from within the main program provides a major benefit compared to Adobe Illustrator. Multipage documents are easy to create and edit and the Corel print engine allows for booklet and other imposition so even simple printers can be used for producing finished documents. One of the useful features for single and multi-page documents is the ability to create linked text boxes across documents that can be resized and moved while the text itself resets and flows through the boxes. Useful for creating and editing multi-article newsletters etc.

Smaller items, like business cards, invitations etc, can be designed to their final page size and imposed to the printer's sheet size for cost-effective printing. An additional print-merge feature (using a spreadsheet or text merge file) allows full personalization for many things like numbered raffle tickets, individual invitations, membership cards and more. A bit like microsoft publisher but a lot more flexible and user friendly.

CorelDRAW's competitors include Adobe Illustrator and Xara Xtreme. Although all of these are vector-based illustration programs, the user experience differs greatly between them. While these programs will read their native file types and vice versa, the translation is almost never perfect. CorelDRAW can open Adobe PDF files: Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher and Word, and other programs can print documents to PDF using the Adobe PDFWriter printer driver, which CorelDRAW can then open and edit every aspect of the original layout and design. CorelDRAW can also open PowerPoint Presentations and other Microsoft Office formats with little or no problem.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Over time, additional components were developed or acquired and bundled with CorelDRAW. The list of bundled packages usually changes somewhat from one release to the next. There are several mainstays that have remained in the package for many releases now, however: PowerTRACE (a bitmap to vector graphic converter), PHOTO-PAINT (a bitmap graphic editor), and CAPTURE (a screen capture utility).

The current version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, X4 (actually version 14), contains the following packages:

CorelDRAW: Vector graphics editing software
Corel PHOTO-PAINT: Raster image creation and editing software
Corel CAPTURE: Enables several methods of image-capture
Corel PowerTRACE: Converts raster images to vector graphics (available inside the CorelDraw program).

Features by version

Ver. 2 (1991): Envelope tool (for distorting text or objects using a primary shape), Blend (for morphing shapes), Extrusion (for simulating perspective and volume in objects) and Perspective (to distort objects along X and Y axes).

Ver. 3 (1992): Included Corel PHOTO-PAINT* (for bitmap editing), CorelSHOW (for creating on-screen presentations, CorelCHART (for graphic charts), Mosaic and CorelTRACE (for vectorizing bitmaps). The inclusion of this software was the precedent for the actual graphic suites.

Ver. 4 (1993): Included Corel PHOTO-PAINT* (for bitmap editing), CorelSHOW (for creating on-screen presentations, CorelCHART (for graphic charts), CorelMOVE for animation, Mosaic and CorelTRACE (for vectorizing bitmaps). The inclusion of this software was the precedent for the actual graphic suites.

Ver. 5 (1994): This is the last version which was made for, and works on Windows 3.x. Corel Ventura was included in the suite (and then sold as a separate program). It was a desktop publishing application akin to PageMaker, Quark Express, or InDesign.

Ver. 6 (1995): This is the first version which was made exclusively for 32-bit Windows. New features were customizable interface, Polygon, Spiral, Knife and Eraser tools. Corel Memo, Corel Presents, Corel Motion 3D, Corel Depth, Corel Multimedia Manager, Corel Font Master and Corel DREAM (for 3D modelling) were included in the suite.

Ver. 7 (1997): Context-sensitive Property bar, Print Preview with Zoom and Pan options, Scrapbook (for viewing a drag-and-dropping graphic objects), Publish to HTML option, Draft and Enhanced display options, Interactive Fill and Blend tools, Transparency tools, Natural Pen tool, Find & Replace wizard, Convert Vector to Bitmap option (inside Draw), Spell checker, Thesaurus and Grammar checker. The suite included Corel Scan and Corel Barista (a Java-based document exchange format).

Ver. 8 (1998): Digger selection, Docker windows, Interactive Distortion, 3D, Envelope and tools, Realistic Dropshadow tool, interactive color mixing, color palette editor, guidelines as objects, custome-sized pages, duotone support. Corel Versions was included in the suite.

Ver. 9 (1999): Mesh fill tool (for complex color filling), Artistic Media tool, Publish to PDF features, embedded ICC color profiles, Multiple On-screen Color Palettes and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications 6 support. The suite included Canto Cumulus LE, a piece of software for media management.

Ver. 10 (2000): CorelR.A.V.E. (for vector animation), Perfect Shapes, Web graphics tools (for creating interactive elements such as buttons), Page sorter, multilingual document support, navigator window.

Ver. 11 (2002): Symbols library, image slicing (for web design), pressure-sensitive vector brushes, 3-point drawing tools.

Ver. 12 (2003): Dynamic guides, Smart Drawing tools, Export to MS Office or Word option, Virtual Segment Delete tool, Unicode text support.

Ver. X3 (2006): Double click Crop tool ( the first vector software able to crop groups of vectors and bitmap images at the same time), Smart fill tool, Chamfer/Fillet/Scallop/Emboss tool, Image Adjustment Lab. Trace became integrated inside Draw under the name PowerTRACE.

Ver. X4 (2008): Whatthefont font identification service linked inside CorelDraw, ConceptShare, Table tool, independent page layers, live text formatting, support for RAW camera files.

Read / Write between the versions

                 ...read files   ...write files                    CorelDRAW was

 CorelDRAW       saved in the    in the native                     designed for

 version X       native format   format for                        use with

 can...          of version X    version X                         Windows X

 ---------       --------------- ---------------                   --------------

 1               1               1                                 2.1 (1.2 also for Win30)

 2               1,2             1,2                               3.0

 3               1,2,3             2,3                             3.0, 3.1 (preferred)

 4               1,2,3,4             3,4                           3.1

 5               1,2,3,4,5           3,4,5                         3.1

 6                   3,4,5,6             5,6                       95

 7                   3,4,5,6,7           5,6,7                     95, NT4.0

 8                   3,4,5,6,7,8           6,7,8                   95, NT4.0

 9                   3,4,5,6,7,8,9       5,6,7,8,9                 95, 98, NT4.0

14                                           7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14  XP, Vista

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (April 2008)

The software mascot was originally a moustached man with a hat called Waldo. "Waldo" was the code name for the first version.
The first versions of CorelDRAW included its own proprietary fonts, which had the extension .wfn (Waldo fonts).
CorelDRAW can actually be used to create TrueType fonts since at least version 4, although the creating of kerning pairs still cannot be adjusted inside the program. Later CorelDRAW versions can export also PostScript and OpenType fonts.^[2]
In 1998, a vector illustration of Hedy Lamarr's face was used by Corel Corporation on the packaging and in the publicity for its CorelDRAW 8 software. Lamarr sued Corel for damages relating to unauthorized use of her likeness. The case was resolved in 1999 and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, under terms that allowed Corel five years of exclusive rights to the image.
South Park characters, scenery, and props are drawn using CorelDRAW.^[3]